"I don't know of my own knowledge. But they told me that he wouldn't have it."
"He threatened them, then?"
"Yes, sir, you might call it threatening."
"Then Riley would appear to have put forward some claim upon the bicycle, although he denied that it was his. Would you not say that he seemed to regard himself as its custodian rather than its proprietor? That he was storing it in Lonergan's kitchen until the occasion should arise when it might be returned to its owner?"
"Well, the boys said he was sorry for taking the wheel and that he never meant to steal it."
"That is all—all on that point, I mean." Bagley had started to leave the stand. "There is another matter, however, with regard to the third bicycle—the one which has not been recovered"—Bagley shifted uneasily to the opposite foot. "How does it happen that you, the sole repository of the secrets of these young law-breakers, can tell us nothing of that?"
"I know nothing about it."
"And about the gold watch stolen from Mr. Merchant's window?"
"I don't know, sir."
"And the meerschaum pipe—of rare coloring, according to the connoisseur who testified in the previous trial?"