almost always had some
one with him; but if not, and he saw him alone, could he keep his hands
off his throat? From the throbbing of his temples when the idea
occurred to him he thought it doubtful. No, he must not see him.

"How on earth did you find it out?" cried the others to Crawley when
Saurin's footstep died away on the staircase.

"I have promised not to name my witnesses unless it is necessary to call
them forward," replied Crawley. "I am very much obliged to you for
coming here, and I feel that it is awfully bad not to take you into full
confidence and give up names. But you see I have passed my word and
cannot help myself. There's one thing I can tell you, Buller. Saurin
was the poacher for whose moonlight excursion you were taken up."

"By Jove!" exclaimed Buller. "Well, I should have imagined that he
might have done that, but not such a dirty business as this."

"I suppose he felt himself up a regular tree, poor beggar!" said
Robarts.

"Well, Gould," said Crawley, "I hope that your doubts as to my story of
having been robbed are set at rest."

"I don't know that I ever had any," replied Gould rather sullenly; "only
when a thing like that happens, and nothing can be found out, one puts
it in every possible light. Saurin said you were a careless fellow
about money matters, and might have mixed up the club money with your
own and paid it away without knowing, and then thought you had been
robbed. Of course one sees now why he put the idea about; but at the
time it looked just possible, and fellows discussed it, I amongst them."

"Well, it was not pleasant for me, as you may easily understand," said
Crawley. "However, that is all over, and we will say nothing more about
it. And now, of course we will all keep our council about this business
for some time. It would be breaking faith with Saurin if we let a word
escape before he has left the school; because, if the doctor heard of
it, he would insist on expelling him at any rate."

"Yes; and we had better hold our tongues for our own sakes," observed
Robarts. "My father's a lawyer, and I have heard him talk about
something of the same kind. And I have a strong idea that we have just
committed a crime, as that chap in the French play talked prose without
knowing it."

"What do you mean?"

"Just this, that to make terms with a thief, by which you agree not to
prosecute him, is a legal offence called `compounding a felony.'"

This notion o