“Then you are willing to tell falsehoods to get out of this affair, eh?” said Jack, in disgust.
To this Ritter did not reply. Coulter looked at Paxton and then at the other cadets. Evidently he was trying to think out a way to escape punishment.
“See here,” he said, in a low, nervous voice. “If we tell the truth about this, and fix everything as it was before, will you let us go?”
“That depends,” answered Jack. “You tell us what you were up to first. I know this paper money belongs to the collection Mr. Strong brought from Ithaca. I saw it this afternoon.”
“All we were doing was to play a trick on you, and Mr. Strong,” went on Coulter. “We took the old paper money and hid it in your tent.”
“And then you were going to put the blame of taking it on us,” broke in Pepper quickly. “A fine trick, I must say! Why, Mr. Strong might have had us locked up for stealing!”
“It was only a trick!” cried Paxton. “We would have explained it afterwards.”
“Perhaps,—but most likely not,” said Andy. “It was a dirty trick, to say the least. You had no business to touch the money.”
“Oh, you needn’t preach to us, Andy Snow!” cried Ritter.
“I—I wish I hadn’t touched the money!” whined Paxton. “I didn’t want to do it in the first place!”