In the passage he pitched head-first into the arms of Mr Railsford.
“What’s wrong?” asked the master, looking down at the miserable face of the small savage before him.
“It’s a swindle!” shouted Dig. “It’s a swindle, Mr Railsford. I won it fairly—and he’s a thief—he’s stolen 10 shillings 6 pence of mine.”
“Don’t make all that noise,” said Railsford quietly, for the luckless baronet was almost out of his wits. “I can hear you without shouting. Who has robbed you?”
“Why, that blackleg swindler in there!” said Dig, pointing at Mills’s door. “Ten-and-six, ten-and-six—the thief!”
“Come with me,” said the master, and he led Dig back into Mills’s study.
“Mills,” said he, “Oakshott says you have robbed him. What does it mean?”
“I’ve not done anything of the kind,” said Mills, himself rather pale and scared. “I told him—it was all a mistake. It wasn’t my fault.”
“What was a mistake? Just tell me what it is all about.”
Here Dig took up the parable.