While engaged in this he felt something bulky in one of the pockets and smiled faintly as he remembered thrusting that portion of Sim's torn coat there.
This he had done under the impression that Hank might consider it conclusive evidence, calculated to convict the young ruffian beyond a possibility of doubt.
It might just as well hang alongside the other garments, though Darry did not intend removing the incriminating mud stains from the fragment.
As he drew the offending piece of cloth out he was thrilled to feel something in the folds, and with trembling fingers he opened it out.
It seemed that with the portion of the coat that had come away in his hands was one of the pockets, and out of this receptacle Darry quickly drew something at which he stared as though he fancied he were dreaming.
His pocket-book!
Sim had undoubtedly snatched the same from his person as they wrestled upon the ground, and having no other place in which to hide it at the moment, had thrust it in the very outside pocket of his coat that a minute later remained in the grip of the boy he had robbed.
Darry stared at it until he realized the amazing fortune that had so kindly returned him his property, and then rolling over on the floor he shook with wild laughter, so that Mrs. Peake came to the door in alarm to see if he were ill.