do it, will you?" asked Bloomfield.

"No. But the reason why Silk wanted it was because he was afraid of
something else coming out. He says it was Gilks who cut the rudder-
lines."

"What! Gilks?" exclaimed Bloomfield, standing still in astonishment.
"It can't be! Gilks was one of us. He backed our boat all along!"

"That's just what I can't make out," said the captain; "and I wanted to
see what you think had better be done."

"Have you asked Gilks?" inquired Bloomfield.

"No. I thought perhaps the best thing was to wait till they had been up
to the doctor. They may let out about it to him, if there's anything in
it. If they don't, we should see what Gilks says."

"If it had been your lines that were cut," said Bloomfield, "I could
have believed it. He had a spite against all your fellows, and
especially you, since he was kicked out of the boat. But he had betted
over a sovereign on us, I know."

"I shouldn't have believed it at all," said Riddell, "if Silk hadn't
sent me an anonymous note a week or two ago. Here it is, by the way."

Bloomfield read the note.

"Did you go and see the boat-boy?" he asked.

"Yes; and all I could get out of him was that some one had got into the
boat-house that night, and scrambled out of the window just in time to
avoid being seen. But the fellow, whoever he was, dropped a knife,
which I managed to get from Tom, and which turned out to be one young
Wyndham had lost."

"Young Wyndham! Then it was true you suspected him?"

"It was true."

And then the captain told his companion the story of the complication of
misunderstandings which had led him almost to the point of denouncing
the boy as the culprit; at the end of which Bloomfield said, in a more
friendly tone than he had yet assumed, "It was a shave, certainly.
Young Wyndham ought to be grateful to you. He'd have found it not so
easy to clear himself if you'd reported him at once."

"I dare say it would have been hard," said Riddell.

"I'm rather ashamed of myself now for trying to make you do it," said
Bloomfield.

"Oh, not at all," said Riddell, dreading as he always did this sort of
talk. "But, I say, what do you think ought to be done?"

"I think we'd better wait, as you say, till they've been to Paddy. Then
if nothing has come out, you ought to see Gilks."

"I think so, but I wish you'd be there too. As captain of the clubs,
you've really more to do with it than I have."

"You're captain of t