“Why, what have I done?” the Pimple asked in alarm.
“You are using stolen goods,” said the Spook. “You must return them to their owners.”
“What do you mean, Sir? My pocket-book, my knife, the tinned food.”
“Go on,” said the Spook. “Name them all, I’m listening.”
Moïse went on naming things he possessed which he had stolen from prisoners’ parcels, interlarding his list with expressions of regret and appeals for forgiveness. He blamed the Cook, I remember, for teaching him to steal. We felt a fierce anger against the little skunk as he went on telling the tale of his thefts. At last he came to the valise straps.
“Return them all, every one,” said the Spook angrily, “or you will never find the treasure.”
“But I forget whose parcels I got them from,” the Pimple whined.
“You can begin with the straps,” said the Spook; “they belong to Gallup, and he is in Angora now. As to the other things, I won’t help you. You must put them back into broken parcels when you return to Yozgad, and you must promise to be honest in future.” Then the Spook went on to give him a lecture on honesty, and the Pimple was deeply affected.
“Thank you,” he said, “in future I will be honest. It does me good to talk to you, Sir. But about these straps. How am I to send them back? What can I say? I would rather destroy them than tell Gallup I stole them.”
The little man was nearly in tears. As the important point was to get the straps back to Gallup we let him off the confession.