l we do?"

"Why the thief isn't likely to visit _your_ study again, Whalley; very
likely he'll come to mine. Suppose we put a little marked money in the
secret drawer. It's rather a joke to call it the _secret_ drawer, for
there's no secret about it; anyhow, it's an open secret."

"Very good; and then?"

"Why, you know the money generally goes at one particular time on
half-holidays. I'm afraid the rogue, whoever he is, has got a taste for
it by this time, and will come to money like a fly to a jam-pot. Now,
outside my room, a few yards off, is the shoe-cupboard; what if you and
I, and a few others, agree to shut ourselves up there in turns, now and
then, on half-holidays between roll-call and tea-time?"

"I see," said Whalley; "well, it's horribly unpleasant, but I'll take my
turn first. Isn't the door usually locked, though?"

"Yes, but so much the better; we can easily get it left open, and the
thief won't suspect an ambuscade. He _must_ be found out, for the sake
of all the boys who are innocent and to wipe out the blot against the
house."

"All right; I'll ensconce myself there to-morrow. I say, Ken, isn't
young Evson a capital fellow? how well he managed to clear Elgood,
didn't he? I declare he taught us all a lesson."

"Yes," said Kenrick; "he's his brother all over; just what Walter was
when he came."

"What, _you_ say that?" said Whalley, smiling and arching his eyebrows.

"Indeed I do," said Kenrick, with some sadness; "I haven't always
thought so, the more's the pity;" and he left the room with a sigh.

After his turn for incarceration in the shoe-cupboard, Bliss complained
loudly that it wasn't large enough to accommodate him, and that it
cramped his long arms and legs, to say nothing of the unpleasant
vicinity of spiders and earwigs. But the others, laughing at him, told
him that, if the experiment was to be of any use whatever, they must
persevere in it, and Bliss allowed himself to be made a victim. For a
time nothing happened, but they had not to wait very long.

One day, Kenrick had been mounting guard for about half an hour, and was
getting very tired, when a light and hasty step passed along the
passage, and into his room. The boy found the study empty, and
proceeded noiselessly to open Kenrick's desk, and examine the contents.
At length he pulled open the secret drawer; it opened with a little
click, and _there_ lay before him two half-sovereigns and some silver.
He was a wary