5i6



The Channings



  " I had a phial very much like this, sir," turning it
over and over in his hand, apparently for the purpose of
a critical inspection. " I am not sure that this is the
same; I don't think it is. I lost mine, sir; somebody
stole it out of my pocket, I think."
  " Vhen did you lose it" demanded Mr. Pye.
  " About the time that the surplice got inked, sir; a
day or two before it. "
  "Who is telling lies now" cried bold Bywater.
  He had the bottle that very day, sir, at his desk, here
in this school-room. The upper boys know he had it,
and that he was using it. Channing "-turning round
and catching Tom's eye, the first he did catch-" you
can bear witness that he was using it that morning."
    Don't call upon me," replied Tom, stolidly. " I
decline to interfere with Mr. Yorke; for, or against
him. "
  " It is his bottle, and he had it that morning; and
I say that I think he must have broken it over the
surplice," persisted Bywater, with as much noise as
he dared display in the presence of the master. " Other-
wise, how should a piece out of the bottle be lying on
the surplice"
  The master came to the conclusion that the facts
were tolerably conclusive. He touched Yorke. " Speak
the truth, boy," he said, with a tone that seemed to
imply he rather doubted Gerald's strict adherence to
truth at all times and seasons.
  Gerald turned crusty. " I don't know anything about
it, sir. Won't I pummel you for this !" he concluded,
in an undertone, to Bywater.
    Besides that, sir," went on Bywater, pushing
Gerald aside with his elbow, as if he were nobody;
" Charles Channing, I say, saw something that led him
to suspect Gerald Yorke. I am certain he did. I think
it likely that he saw him fling the bottle away, after
doing the mischief. Yorke knows that I have given
him more than one chance to get out of this. If he
had only told me in confidence that it was he who did
it, whether by accident or mischief, I'd have let it
drop. "
  " Yorke," said the master, leaning his face forward
and speaking in an undertone, " do you remember what