“Why didn’t you turn it over to me with the bag?”
“Because I didn’t find them at the same time. I found that nugget to-day after we finished the bridge through the waterfall.”
“Why didn’t you say something about it? Why did you hide it in your pocket and keep still? A boy would naturally become pretty excited on finding a gold nugget.”
“I didn’t hide it in my pocket,” was Hal’s choking reply. “I didn’t know what it was and just stuck it in my pocket.”
“Why didn’t you throw it away?”
“It wasn’t like an ordinary stone. It was heavy, and I wanted to look at it in the light.”
“Where are the rest of them?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean the other nuggets,” said the aviator with continued sternness. “There were six in the bag.”
For a moment Hal’s eye blazed with indignation; then his spirit seemed to collapse. The implied charge and the suspicious circumstances were too much for him.