"Hm! And you're absolutely sure, Mr. Edwards, that you left the little package in your overcoat pocket?"
"Positive of it, Dr. Thornton."
"It's so strange that it startles me," admitted the good principal.
"It startles me a good deal," confessed Edwards, grimly, "to think what explanation I am to offer my mother."
"Oh, well, it must turn up," replied Dr. Thornton, though vaguely. "Anyway, Edwards, there has been no theft. The door is locked, and the only two keys to it are the one carried by the monitor and a duplicate which is kept locked in my own desk. You'll probably find it in one of your pockets."
"I have been through every pocket in my clothes at least seven times, sir," insisted the dismayed Edwards. "And that is a rather valuable pin," he added; "worth, I believe, something, like fifty dollars."
"Rest assured that we'll have some good explanation of the mystery before long," replied the principal as soothingly as he could.
Edwards went away, sore and disheartened, but there was nothing more to be said or done.
Thursday morning Dr. Thornton carried the investigation further, but absolutely no light could be shed on the missing pin.
But at recess it was Frank Thompson who came upstairs breathless.