did come to the boat-house that night?" said Riddell.

"How do I know? Suppose they did?"

"Suppose they did? I want to know who it was."

"I tell you I don't know. It was pitch dark, and I ain't seen his face,
there; and what's more, I don't know the chap."

"But you let him into the boat-house?"

"No, I didn't," said Tom, whose strong point was evidently not in
standing cross-examination. "That's where you're wrong again. You're
all wrong."

"You knew he was there, at any rate," said Riddell.

"No, I didn't. You're wrong agin. You don't know what you're talkin'
about. How could I know he was there, when I worn't there myself?"

"What! did he get in while you were away?"

"In course he did. Do you suppose I goes to bed like you kids at eight
o'clock? No fear. Why, I don't get my supper at Joe Blades's till
ten."

"Then you found some one in the boat-house when you went there, after
supper, to go to bed?"

"There you are, all wrong agin. How do you suppose I'd find him when he
got out of the window?"

"Then he came in and went out by the window?" asked Riddell.

"Why, you don't suppose he could come down the chimbley, do you?"
retorted Tom, scornfully, "and there's no way else."

"You had the key of the door all the time, of course," said Riddell.

"In course. Do you suppose we leaves the boat'us open for anybody as
likes to come in without leave?"

"Then it was seeing the window open made you know some one had been in?"
continued the captain.

"Wrong agin! Why, you aren't been right once yet."

"Do you mean you really saw some one there?"

"How _could_ I see him when he was a-hoppin' out of the winder just as I
comes in? I tell you I didn't see him. You couldn't have sor him
either, not with all your learnin'."

"Then you've no idea who it was?"

"Ain't I? that's all you know."

"Why, you say you never saw him. Did you hear his voice?"

"No, I didn't."

"Has some one told you? Has he come and told you himself?"

"No, he ain't. Wrong agin."

"Did he leave anything behind that you would know him by, then?"

The boy looked up sharply at Riddell, who saw that he had made a point,
and followed it up.

"What did he leave behind? His cap?" he asked.

"His cap! Do you suppose chaps cut strings with their caps? Why, you
must be a flat."

"His knife, was it?" exclaimed Riddell, excitedly. "Was it his knife?"

"There you go; you're so clever. I as good as tell yer, a