dered it wise to
withdraw their charge against Nelson Haley. Without any evidence but
that of a purely presumptive character, their lawyer had advised this
retreat.

Really, it was a sharp trick. It left Nelson worse off, as far as
disproving their charge went, than he would have been had they taken
the case into court. The charge still lay against the young man in the
public mind. He had no opportunity of being legally cleared of
suspicion.

The ancient legal supposition that a man is innocent until he is found
guilty, is never honored in a New England village. He is guilty unless
proved innocent. And how could Nelson prove his innocence? Only by
discovering the real thief and proving _him_ guilty.

The shrewd attorney hired by the four committeemen knew very well that
he was not prejudicing his clients' case when he advised them to quash
the warrant.

But as for the discovery of the rare coin in circulation--one known to
belong to the collection stolen from the schoolhouse--that injured the
committeemen's cause rather than helped it, it must be confessed.

Joe Bodley frankly admitted having paid over the gold piece to Hopewell
Drugg, as a deposit on the fiddle. But he professed not to know how
the coin had come into the till at the tavern.

Joe had full charge of the cash-drawer when Mr. Parraday was not
present, and he had helped himself to such money as he thought he would
need when he went up town to negotiate for the purchase of the fiddle.
He denied emphatically that the man who had engaged him to purchase the
fiddle had given him the ten dollar gold piece. Who the purchaser of
the fiddle was, however, the barkeeper declined to say.

"That's my business," Joe had said, when questioned on this point.
"Ya-as. I expect to take the fiddle. Hopewell's agreed to sell it to
me, fair and square. If I can make a lettle spec on the side, who's
business is it but my own?"

When Janice heard the report of this--through Walky Dexter, of
course--she was reminded of the black-haired, foreign looking man, who
had been so much interested in Hopewell's violin the night she and
Frank Bowman had taken the storekeeper home from the dance.

"I wonder if he can be the customer that Joe Bodley speaks of? Oh,
dear me!" sighed Janice. "I'm so sorry Hopewell has to sell his
violin. And I'm sorry he is going to sell it this way. If that 'foxy
looking foreigner,' as Mr. Bowman called him, is the purchaser of the
i