"I was told that you were lost overboard," said Tom, with a struggle to recover his self-possession.
"E. Dunkswell pushed me overboard; but that act proved to be my salvation. I won't trouble you with particulars. My mother is in the parlor."
"Your mother!" exclaimed Tom; and from the height of guilty confidence he fell to the depth of hopeless despair.
"What shall be done?" repeated my uncle, in hollow tones.
"Justice must be done," I replied.
"You have been smart, Ernest," added Tom, with a sepulchral laugh. "How can we settle this business?"
"By paying over to Mr. Hale every dollar mentioned in my father's will," I replied.
"You are hard, Ernest."
"But I am your guardian and trustee, Ernest," said my uncle.
Tom said half the money was spent, and offered to give up fifty thousand dollars in United States securities.