"Did you own it?" asked the captain.
"Not then. I felt meaner than dirt; but I was afraid I'd be expelled. It went on that way till the night before the school left for the island; then I couldn't stand it to have Joe left behind, and I up and wrote a note and left it for Mr. Bernard, confessing all."
"And what did you have to do with it, Ben?" asked Captain Dare, wondering why Ralph had not mentioned him.
"I? Oh, I knew about it, but I wasn't going to tell on Ralph."
"Then you got behind me to keep out of their way," said Captain Dare. "Well, what is going to be the end of it all?"
Ralph shook his head.
"None of us know, and that's a fact, boys! But it ought to be a lesson to you to keep truth on your side. Lies never pay."
"So I believe," said Ralph in sober earnest.
"I begin to think so too," said Ben. "Anyhow, these didn't."
"Now's the time to take a fresh start, then; and I hope we'll all of us live so we can be glad to have the Lord see all we do and hear all we say,--yes, and know all we think, too. That's the tough part--the heart is such a queer thing. Sometimes it looks all fair and smooth, and we feel pretty well satisfied with ourselves; but just dig down a little way and we'll find a lot of rubbish there we are ashamed of. The only way is to keep it open for the Lord to look through all the time."