“Who? It wasn't anybody but myself. Smithers had no hand in it then.”
Roy Henning's heart gave a great bound of relief. It was not his cousin, after all. Thank God, thank God! The family honor was saved! How glad he was now of his silence! Was ever silence so golden? What irretrievable damage a hasty word could have done. The thief known, on his own confession, and before witnesses. His cousin exonerated! Thank God, thank God! Of course Roy was curious now to know all the details and it was with the utmost difficulty that he restrained his excitement sufficiently to be able to speak in a natural tone.
“How did you manage to do it?”
“Umph! This information which you have been seeking for the last five months does not seem to affect you much.”
“With that we can deal later. Now I am curious to know how you did it. Please tell me.”
“As you take the matter so coolly, I will. I laid my plans well. I determined, if caught in lifting the grating, to be hunting for a ball, which I had previously dropped down there. I watched my time. I made the entry while the boys were in the chapel at night prayers. I settled with myself that if I were caught coming out, to bring the money to you to prove to you how foolish you were to leave it in a common table drawer. In the dark it took only a minute to lift the grating. You know that it is thick iron with small holes. Three boys did actually walk over the grating that night while I was crouching beneath it with the money in my pocket.”
Henning startled both Stockley and his companions by saying, dramatically:
“I saw you that night there.”
“What, you saw me! Oh, I say, that's a likely story—and didn't say a word all this time,”