“Why didn’t you tell some of us about that at the time?” asked Doctor Rally severely.
“I suppose I ought to have done so,” was the answer, “but I was cold and sleepy, and the next day I forgot all about it.”
There was a long silence, while Doctor Rally pondered. He broke it at last by saying:
“I want to be entirely just to you, Rushton. I am not ready to condemn you on this evidence, though I will not deny that things look dark for you. I shall look into the matter further, and when I have reached a decision I will let you know. That is all for the present.”
He nodded a dismissal, and Fred, picking up his hat, stumbled blindly from the room.
The two men who held his fate in their hands, stared at each other for a long minute without speaking.
“It looks bad,” said Doctor Rally, at last, “and I am more sorry than I can tell, that he should be mixed up in such a wretched mess. His parents are the finest kind of people, and his uncle is a particular friend of mine.”
“Do you think that he is guilty, then?” asked the professor.
“What else can I think?” said the doctor gloomily. “Everything seems to indicate it. The facts are like so many spokes of a wheel, all leading to the hub, and that hub is Rushton.
“Who knew that the examination papers were in your desk? Rushton. Who had been wishing he were a mind reader, so that he might know what questions you were going to ask? Rushton. Who saw, or says he saw a mysterious marauder coming from the building at midnight, and yet said nothing to any one about it? Rushton. And, above all, who actually had the missing package in his locker? Rushton.