"What's this? One o' your cheap jokes?" asked the boy's father, who chanced to be in the kitchen, too.
"Guess Nelson Haley don't think it's a joke," said the boy, his voice still shaking. "I just heard all about it. There ain't many folks know it yet——"
"Stop that!" cried his mother. "You tell us plain what Mr. Haley's done."
"Ain't done nothin', of course. But they say he has," Marty stoutly maintained.
"Then what do they accuse him of?" queried Mr. Day.
"They accuse him of stealin'! Hi tunket! ain't that the meanest thing ye ever heard?" cried the boy. "Nelson Haley, stealin'. It gets me for fair!"
"Why—why I can't believe it!" Aunt 'Mira gasped, and she sat down with a thud on one of the kitchen chairs.
"I got it straight," Marty went on to say. "The School Committee's all in a row over it. Ye see, they had the coins——"
"Who had what coins?" cried his mother.
"The School Committee. That collection of gold coins some rich feller lent the State Board of Education for exhibition at the lecture next Friday. They only come over from Middletown last night and Mr. Massey locked them in his safe."