s' jacket pockets after they had
gone to bed; from the play-boxes which were not provided with good locks
and keys; from the private desks in the classrooms, from the
dormitories, and from several of the studies. There was no clue to the
offender, and first of all suspicion fell strongly on the new boy,
little Elgood. A few trifling items of circumstantial evidence seemed
to point him out, and it began to be gradually whispered, no one exactly
knew how or by whom, that he must be the guilty boy. Hints were thrown
out to him to this effect; little bits of paper, on which were written
the words "Thou shalt not steal," or "The devil will have thieves," were
dropped about in his books and wherever he was likely to find them, and
whenever the subject was brought on the tapis his manner was closely
watched. The effect was unsatisfactory; for Elgood was a timid nervous
boy, and the uneasiness to which this nervousness gave rise was set down
as a sign of guilt. At length a sovereign and a half were stolen out of
Whalley's study, and as Elgood, being Whalley's fag, had constant access
to the study, and might very well have known that Whalley had the money,
and in what place he kept it, the prevalent suspicions were confirmed.
The boys, with their usual thoughtless haste, leapt to the conclusion
that he must have been the thief.

The house was in a perfect ferment. However lightly one or two of them,
like Penn, may have thought about taking trifles from small tradesmen,
there was not a single one among them, not even Penn himself, whose
morality did not brand this thieving from schoolfellows as wicked and
mean. The boys felt, too, that it was a stigma on their house, and
unhappily Just at the time when the majority were really anxious to
raise their corporate reputation. Every one was filled with annoyance
and disgust, and felt an anxious determination to discover and give up
the thief.

At last the suspicions against Elgood proceeded so far, that out of mere
justice to him the heads of the house, Whalley, Kenrick, and Bliss,
thought it right that he should be questioned. So, after tea, all the
house assembled in the classroom, and Elgood was formally charged with
the delinquency, and questioned about it, Wilton, in particular, urging
him in almost a bullying tone to surrender and confess. The poor child
was overwhelmed with terror--cried, blushed, answered incoherently, and
lost his head, but would not for a moment co