very blackest and most revolting dye. He could not restrain,
and did not attempt to restrain, the passionate contempt and horror
which he felt for this act.

"Penn," he said, in a loud and excited voice, not doubting that the
sympathies of the others would be as warm as his own, "Penn, you wicked
brute, you have stolen that bottle of scent. Here, Mrs Hart, _you_
shan't suffer at any rate if there _is_ a fellow so base and wicked,"
and he at once pulled out his last half-crown, and insisted on her
taking it in payment for the stolen article.

Penn, for the moment, was quite taken aback by the scathing flame of
Charlie's righteous anger. If there had been none but Noelites there he
would have made very light of the accusation, and probably have laughed
it off; but there were others looking on who would, he knew, view the
transaction in a very different light, so he thought that his safest
course lay in a flat denial. It was not reasonable to expect that he
would stick at this; a boy who has no scruples about "bagging" the
property of a poverty-stricken old woman, is not likely to hesitate
about telling a "cram" to escape exposure.

"What's all this about, you little fool? I haven't bagged anything."

Charlie was still more amazed; he positively could not understand a
great brazen lie like this, and yet it was impossible to doubt that it
_was_ a lie, against the evidence of his own senses.

"You didn't take that scent-bottle? oh! how _can_ you tell such a lie?
I saw you with my own eyes."

"What do I care for you or your eyes?" was the only answer which Penn
vouchsafed to return.

"You're always flying out at fellows like a young turkey-cock, you
No-thank-you," said Wilton. "Why don't you thrash him, Penn, for his
confounded impudence?"

"Thrash him yourself if you like, Raven; I don't care the snap of a
finger for what he says."

"What do you mean, No-thank-you, by charging him with bagging the thing
when he says he didn't?" said Wilton in a threatening tone to Charlie;
and as Charlie took no notice, he enforced the question by a slap on the
cheek; for Wilton had old grudges against Charlie to pay off.

"I didn't speak to _you_, Wilton; but you shan't hit me for nothing; you
force me to fight against my will," said Charlie, returning the blow;
"you can't say that I'm doing it to get off anything this time, as you
did once before."

A long and desperate fight ensued between Charlie and Wilton; too long