fellow, for he scrutinised these all over most carefully
to see if they were marked, and finding no mark of any kind on them--for
it almost required a microscope to see the tiny scratch between the w.w.
on the smooth edge of the neck--he took out his purse, and was
proceeding to drop them into it, when _a heavy hand was laid upon his
shoulder_, and Kenrick and Wilton--the detected thief--stood face to
face. The purse dropped on the floor.

For a moment they stood silent, staring at each other, and drawing quick
breaths. Wilton stood there pale as death, and looked up at Kenrick
trembling, and with a frightened stare. It was too awful to be so
suddenly surprised; to have had an unknown eye-witness standing by him
all the while that, fancying himself unseen, he was in the very act of
committing that secret deed of sin; to be arrested, detected, exposed,
as the boy whose hidden misdoings had been, for so long, a source of
discomfort, anxiety, and shame.

"_You_, Wilton--_you, you, you_, the disturber of the house, _you_, who
have so long been treated by me as a friend, and allowed at all times to
use my study; _you_, the foremost to throw the suspicion on others!" He
stopped, breathless, for his indignation was rushing in too deep and
strong a torrent to find vent in words.

"O Kenrick, don't tell of me."

"Don't _tell_ of you! Good heavens! is that all you can find to say?
Not one word of sorrow--not one word of shame. Abandoned, heartless,
graceless fellow!"

"I was driven to it, Kenrick, indeed I was. I owed money to Dan, and
to--to other places, and they threatened to tell of me if I didn't pay.
Then Harpour and those fellows quite cleared me out at cards; I believe
they did it by cheating. O, don't tell of me."

"I cannot screen a thief," was the freezing reply; and the change from
flame to ice showed into what commotion his feelings had been thrown.

"Well, then, if it comes to that," said Wilton, turning sullen, "_I'll_
tell of _you_. It'll all come out; remember it was you who first took
me to Dan's, and that's not the only thing I could tell of you. O
Kenrick, don't tell, or it will get us all into trouble."

"This, then, is the creature whom I have suffered to call me friend!"
said Kenrick; "for whom I have given up some of the best friends in the
school! And this is your gratitude! Why, you worm, Wilton, what do you
take me for? Do you think that fear of _your_ disclosures will make me
hus