“’they say! They say!’” impatiently exclaimed Frank. “’they say’ has ruined many a fair reputation. It is in the mouth of every lying, malicious gossip. It’s a manner of shunning responsibility for slander. Don’t tell me that ’they say.’ Who says? Just what do they say?”
“Why,” said Bart, floundering a little, “it—it’s the—the report that he’s light-fingered.”
“The proof?”
“Why, things have been missed from a number of different rooms.”
“Is that so?” cried Frank, with fine scorn. “I don’t suppose such a thing ever happened before Jim Hooker came to college!”
“But circumstantial evidence——”
“Has hanged many an innocent man.”
“Everything has seemed to point to Hooker as the thief,” asserted Hodge desperately.
“By ‘everything’ you mean what? Is there any absolute proof?”
“Why, no, there is no positive proof. If there were, Hooker would have been forced to get out of Yale long ago.”