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Page 39
"Digby, there is some vile secret underlying all this, and I don't know
what it is. But I declare to you, solemnly, that I am innocent of this
charge. If you have spoken against me to-day because you thought you
ought to do it, I can't blame you, but if you have done it from any
wrong motive, I hope you'll confess it before evil is added to evil."
But Digby merely shrugged his shoulders, and turning to the Doctor,
said: "Have you anything more you wish to ask me, sir?"
Dr. Brier was fairly nonplussed. The fog grew denser all around him.
Addressing a few words of caution to those who had been summoned to
this the strangest meeting that was ever held in Blackrock School, he
dismissed the boys, ordering Howard and Digby to be kept in separate
rooms until he should arrive at some judgment in the case.
CHAPTER IV.
THE VERDICT.
It was all very well for the Doctor to decide to keep the boys in two
separate rooms until he should form some judgment on the case, but
toward the close of the day, after the most searching inquiries had
been instituted, he was no nearer to a final decision than when he
started, and he feared they might have to remain where they were until
Doomsday, unless he could find out something positive about the matter.
Howard and Digby were missed from their accustomed places in the
school, and by the mid-day play-time the secret had oozed out, and
great discussions were being held as to the merits of the case. There
was not a boy in the school who in his heart believed that Howard was
really guilty, although the evidence seemed clearly against him. There
was not, on the other hand, one who felt justified in thinking that
Digby had willfully accused his friend falsely, and yet there was an
uncomfortable suspicion that it might be so.
All the next day inquiries went on, and nothing of importance was the
result. The Doctor had seen the prisoners, and talked to each
separately; he had taken counsel from those of the boys upon whose
judgment he could rely, and in the evening all those who had
constituted the preliminary meeting were again called together. The
first count in the indictment, namely, that Howard had attempted to
pocket the miniature, was discussed and dismissed as a misconstruction
of motive. The second charge as to his being about in his room during
the night was not so easily got rid of. Howard pleaded that he had gone
to sleep as usual, and slept soundly, but that he was aroused by
hearing, as he thought, some one in his room. He went to sleep again,
and was aroused a second time by the stumbling of some one over a box,
as it seemed to him, which was followed by the sudden closing of a
door. He got up, went into Digby's room, listened by his bedside, and
found he was breathing hard, and then, noticing that his window was not
fast, he opened it and looked out. The nightingales were singing, and
he sat up for a long time listening to them. Then, as he grew chilly,
he closed the window and turned into bed again, and slept till Digby
called him. Beyond this he knew nothing.
The Doctor summed up. There was guilt in the heart of one boy at least,
but which one there was no evidence at present to show. That the fact
of the snuff-box being found in Howard's bed had at first sight looked
like circumstantial evidence against him could not be denied, but as
the links in the chain had been broken in several places, he considered
that the whole had fallen to pieces, and he confessed that he did not
believe for a moment, from the facts before him, that Howard was
guilty. From his knowledge of Digby he must fully exonerate him from
the charge of willfully implicating his friend in the matter, as it
seemed evident that he was justified in expressing the suspicions he
entertained, considering the circumstances of the case. For the present
the matter must be dismissed, but he could not doubt that light would
soon shine through the darkness, and the true facts of the case would
yet be known. He would still urge that if anything should transpire in
the knowledge of any one present that it was important he should know,
no selfish motive should induce him to remain silent, while at the same
time he would deprecate suspicions of each other, and would remind them
that as the law judged those to be innocent who were not proved to be
guilty, so it must be in this case. With this the Doctor dismissed the
assembly.
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