is some consolation; but still it is in
the future, don't you see, and I must ask her for this stolen money at
once. By Jove! I wish I had come back unexpectedly for something, and
caught the fellow taking it! I wonder who on earth it can be!"

"I have no idea. Not Polly the maid, I'll take my Davey; I have so
often left money and things about, and never lost a halfpenny."

That same Sunday Saurin and Edwards were standing with two or three
others in the quadrangle, when Gould limped by.

"How is your ankle getting on, Gould?" one of the group called out.

"Better, thanks," he replied, joining them. "I say, if it had kept me
in yesterday afternoon Crawley might have thought I took the money!
What a joke, eh? Fancy my wanting a paltry four pounds odd."

"You were not in?" cried Edwards; and he could have bitten his tongue
out immediately afterwards.

But the surprise was too great for his prudence. He and Saurin had gone
to their own tutor's house before repairing to the football field, you
may remember, and that route did not pass the Fives Court. So that it
was the first intimation Edwards had that Saurin lied when he said he
had asked Gould for a loan, and been refused.

"No," said Gould, looking at him in surprise; "what made you think I
was?"

"Only your sprain," said Edwards, recovering himself. "Some fellows
were saying that if you were in, the thief must have trod very lightly
for you not to have heard him, as your room is so near. But as you were
out, and all the other fellows too, he had the coast clear, you know."

"What is your idea about the whole thing, Saurin?" asked Gould; "you are
a sharp chap."

"Oh, I don't know," said Saurin. "I should not be very much surprised
if the money turned up, and there proved to have been no robbery at
all."

"What on earth do you mean?"

"The chances are I am wrong, no doubt, but it is possible. Crawley is a
very careless fellow, you know, about money matters."

"But how could he have made a mistake, when he counted out the money
such a short time before?" asked one of the group. "I was present at
the meeting, and you should have seen his surprise when he took up the
purse."

"Oh, I dare say it is all as you think," said Saurin. "I only know that
if I had charge of money I should always be in a muddle. I never know
anything about my own, and it is little enough to calculate; if I had to
keep it separate from that of other people I should alwa