l so closely that they could only
murmur an assent.

"I have told you about the anonymous letter," continued Mr. Weevil, "and
the conclusion I had arrived at by the help of Mr. Travers. You have
seen that that conclusion is correct, for Parfitt has himself admitted
it. So much is clear. Now follow me a little farther. Not long after
receiving this anonymous letter, some of the competitors began to send
in their essays for the Talbot prize. Among others was one from
Parfitt."

A profound silence fell on the room as the master once more pronounced
that name. Every eye was turned to Parfitt, who was still doing his best
to put on a bold face.

"It was a remarkably clever piece of work and would assuredly have won
the prize. It was too clever, in fact. It contained information which
astonished me--information which could not be obtained from the school
library. It was information, in fact, such as I myself had obtained
after special research, and which had been embodied in the notes that
had been stolen from my desk."

"You mean to say that I am the thief--that I stole your notes!"
blustered Parfitt.

"Silence, sir!" came the stern voice of the master. "Have the courtesy
to hear me to the end. I have but little more to add, and then I shall
be only too pleased to hear anything you may have to say in your
defence. The way in which the information was used was so ingenious that
it would have been quite impossible to declare that the writer of this
essay was the culprit. I was quite certain of it in my own mind, but it
needed additional proof. How to get it was the next point. In
consultation with Mr. Travers here, a speedy decision was come to. It
was of the utmost importance that the innocent should be cleared; the
guilty punished. A locksmith was called in on the next half-holiday.
Parfitt's box was opened, its contents examined. At the bottom we
discovered the missing notes. The pages from the Black Book, as being
useless, had been destroyed. The same fate would doubtless have followed
my notes, so soon as the result of the competition was known. I took the
notes from the box. A facsimile was put in their place. Here are the
originals."

He held up the notes. All heads were eagerly craned forward to look at
them.

"These are the originals," repeated the master, when the sensation
caused by their production had abated. "I doubt not the facsimiles to
which I have referred will still be found in Parfitt's box. What