Ronald's face was crimson with indignation; but he controlled himself to speak calmly.
"I have only one answer to give, and that, as in God's presence, I do give. Dr. Bowles, I am not guilty of any one of the things you bring against me, on what evidence I know not. I never was even near the river on Saturday. I was only one hour out of the school bounds, and then I went in a different direction. So, in the denying it, I was neither a coward nor a liar."
The last word was uttered with difficulty. Dr. Bowles looked steadily at the bold, fearless eyes that met his own. Could they, he was asking himself, belong to one who was acting the part of a hypocrite? And for the first time he was staggered in his belief. Still, what of the fishing rod? Without a word, he produced it.
An unmistakable look of surprise and pain crossed the boy's face as he said, "That is my fishing rod, sir. Did you take it from the shelf in our room?"
"No, Ronald Macintosh," was the stern reply; "it was found by the river-side, dropped by the boy who was fishing there. Your name is on it; and, despite the pain it causes me to say it, I can have no more conclusive evidence that you are the guilty one. Besides, I remember, only too plainly, your refusal to go to London with Mrs. Bowles and me, after you had expressed a strong wish to do so only the night before. Even then your manner struck me as strange; now it is easily accounted for. O Ronald, Ronald! I am sorely disappointed in you," and as he spoke, he leant his head on his hands in sore distress of spirit.
The amount of apparent evidence against him fairly overcame Ronald, as well as his master's grief; but he spoke out. "Dr. Bowles, listen to me one moment, ere you condemn me thus. I see plainly what cause you have to do so. I know not who is guilty in this matter, but I am not. I never took that rod from the place I put it in when I first came here; who took it, I cannot say. I am almost certain it was in its place when I left the house. I did not accompany you to London, much as I wished to do so, because I thought my duty was to remain here."
At these words the master raised his head. "Your duty?"
"Yes, sir."
"Where, then, did you go during the hour that you confess to being absent from bounds?"
"Do you know a solitary cottage, sir, that stands on the part of Mr. Lawson's grounds the farthest off from the village?"