d, by way of punishment, gave him an examination all to
himself, which resulted, much to his comfort, in his being placed in the
upper third, of which Dick and Heathcote were already shining lights.

While he was thus engaged, Dick and Heathcote were holding a secret, and
by no means cheerful, consultation over a recent number of the
_Templeton Observer_.

"I made sure it was all blown over," said the latter, dejectedly.

"What a cad the fellow must be!" said the former.

"I think newspapers are a regular nuisance!" said Georgie.

"All I know is, he robbed us of all we had, and if we'd informed he'd
have been in Botany Bay or somewhere this minute!" said Dick, working
himself up into a passion.

The extract from the _Templeton Observer_ which gave rise to this duet
of wrath was as follows, dated some ten days before the close of the
holidays:--

*The recent mysterious disappearance of a Templeton boat*.--Up to the
present time nothing has been heard of the _Martha_, which, as our
readers will remember, disappeared from the Templeton beach, on the
4th June last. The supposed clue with which the police professed to
be provided has, so far, failed to bring the perpetrators of the
outrage to justice; although the hope is by no means abandoned of
tracing the missing lad. The matter is somewhat seriously complicated
by the discovery that Thomas White, the reputed owner of the boat, was
at no time its actual proprietor. The _Martha_ was the joint property
of White and three other men, one of them skipper of the brig _Julia_,
and the other two well-known fishermen, of this town. It appears that
an arrangement was made, whereby White should be the nominal owner of
the boat, he undertaking to hand over monthly three quarters of the
profits to his partners. In May last, during the absence of his other
partners, White pawned the _Martha_ representing her to be his sole
property, and appropriated the whole proceeds of the transaction. For
this act of fraud (which the recent loss of the boat and the return of
its joint owners has brought to light) we understand a writ has been
issued against White, and that he will be arrested immediately on his
return to Templeton from his present cruise with the Fishing Fleet in
the high seas.

"Tom White's a regular bad one," said Dick.

"Yes. It was a jolly mean trick to pawn what didn't belong to him."

"The thing is, who did it belong