should be searched, and every one else followed his example. The whole
of the next afternoon was spent in a careful examination of desks and
boxes, but with no result beyond the discovery that Mugford owned a cord
waistcoat which he had 'never had the moral courage to wear.

There is one feature in the administration of justice by an English
court which is unhappily too often overlooked in the lynch law of
schoolboys, and that is the principle that a man shall be considered
innocent until he has been clearly proved guilty. Smarting under a
sense of shame which was entirely unmerited, every boy sought eagerly
for some object on which to vent his indignation; it became necessary,
to use the words of the comic opera, that "a victim should be found,"
and suspicion fell on Kennedy and Jacobs. The result of Diggory's trap
seemed to show that the various thefts had been committed at night.
It was agreed that the two occupants of the "Main-top" had special
opportunity for getting out of the house if so minded; every other room
had one or more fellows in it who had suffered the loss of some
property; and lastly, Kennedy was known to possess a pair of hob-nailed
fishing-boots, which he usually kept under his bed. The two boys
indignantly denied the accusation when it was first brought against
them, but the very vehemence with which they protested their innocence
was regarded as "put on," and accepted as an additional proof of their
guilt. The evidence, however, was not thought sufficient to warrant
bringing a charge against them before the head-master, and accordingly
it was decided to send them both to Coventry until some fresh light
should be brought to bear upon the case.

To do full justice to the memory of Diggory Trevanock, he alone stood
out against this decision, and incurred the wrath both of Acton and Jack
Vance in so doing. He continued to affirm that it must be the man he