"No."
"Expound your meaning, then, most learned and mysterious chum."
"I will. Within five minutes Jim Smith has been here and left a wallet of money."
"Jim been here? I met him in the corridor."
"I warrant he didn"t say he had been here."
"No; he said he had been to Bates" room, but didn"t find him there."
"That"s all gammon! Wilkins, what will you say when I tell you that old Sock"s wallet is in this very room!"
"I won"t believe it!"
"Look here, then!"
As he spoke, Ben went to Hector"s pants and drew out the wallet.
Wilkins started in surprise and dismay.
"How did Roscoe come by that?" he asked; "surely he didn"t take it?"
"Of course he didn"t. You might know Roscoe better. Didn"t you hear me say just now that Jim brought it here?"
"And put it in Roscoe"s pocket?"
"Yes."
"In your presence?"
"Yes; only he didn"t know that I was present," said Platt.
"Where were you?"
"In the closet. The door was partly open, and I saw everything."
"What does it all mean?"
"Can"t you see? It"s Jim"s way of coming up with Roscoe. You know he threatened that he"d fix him."
"All I can say is, that it"s a very mean way," said Wilkins in disgust.
He was not a model boy--far from it, indeed!--but he had a sentiment of honor that made him dislike and denounce a conspiracy like this.
"It"s a dirty trick," he said, warmly.
"I agree with you on that point." "What shall we do about it?"
"Lay low, and wait till the whole thing comes out. When Sock discovers his loss, Jim will be on hand to tell him where his wallet is. Then we can up and tell all we know."
"Good! There"s a jolly row coming!" said Wilkins, smacking his lips.
CHAPTER XVIII. THE MISSING WALLET IS FOUND.
Socrates Smith was, ordinarily, so careful of his money, that it was a very remarkable inadvertence to leave it on the bureau. Nor was it long before he ascertained his loss. He was sitting at his desk when his wife looked in at the door, and called for a small sum for some domestic expenditure.
With an ill grace--for Socrates hated to part with his money--he put his hand into the pocket where he usually kept his wallet.
"Really, Mrs. Smith," he was saying, "it seems to me you are always wanting money--why, bless my soul!" and such an expression of consternation and dismay swept over his face, that his wife hurriedly inquired:
"What is the matter, Mr. Smith?"
"Matter enough!" he gasped. "My wallet is gone!"
"Gone!" echoed his wife, in alarm. "Where can you have left it?"
Mr. Smith pressed his hand to his head in painful reflection.
"How much money was there in it, Socrates?" asked his wife.
"Between forty and fifty dollars!" groaned Mr. Smith. "If I don"t find it, Sophronia, I am a ruined man!"
This was, of course, an exaggeration, but it showed the poignancy of the loser"s regret.
"Can"t you think where you left it?"
Suddenly Mr. Smith"s face lighted up.
"I remember where I left it, now," he said; "I was up in the chamber an hour since, and, while changing my coat, took out my wallet, and laid it on the bureau. I"ll go right up and look for it."
"Do, Socrates."
Mr. Smith bounded up the staircase with the agility of a man of half his years, and hopefully opened the door of his chamber, which Jim had carefully closed after him. His first glance was directed at the bureau, but despair again settled down sadly upon his heart when he saw that it was bare. There was no trace of the missing wallet.
"It may have fallen on the carpet," said Socrates, hope reviving faintly.
There was not a square inch of the cheap Kidderminster carpet that he did not scan earnestly, greedily, but, alas! the wallet, if it had ever been there, had mysteriously taken to itself locomotive powers, and wandered away into the realm of the unknown and the inaccessible.
Yet, searching in the chambers of his memory, Mr. Smith felt sure that he had left the wallet on the bureau. He could recall the exact moment when he laid it down, and he recollected that he had not taken it again.
"Some one has taken it!" he decided; and wrath arose in his heart, He snapped his teeth together in stern anger, as he determined that he would ferret out the miserable thief, and subject him to condign punishment.