"Yes, Floss told me," said Carrots.
"And Floss hid it away in your paint-box, I suppose?" said Mott, sarcastically.
"No, Floss didn't. I hided the sixpenny my own self," said Carrots, looking more and more puzzled.
"Hold your tongue, Maurice," said his father, angrily. "Go and fetch the money and the tomfool paint-box thing that you say he had it in."
Mott did as he was told. He ran to the nursery and back as fast as he could; but, unobserved by him, Floss managed to run after him and crept into the study so quietly that her father never noticed her.
Maurice laid the old paint-box and the half-sovereign down on the table in front of his father; Captain Desart held up the little coin between his finger and thumb.
"Now," he said, "Carrots, look at this. Did you or did you not take this piece of money out of nurse's drawer and hide it away in your paint-box?"
Carrots stared hard at the half-sovereign.
"I did put it in my paint-box," he said, and then he stopped.
"What for?" said his father.