CHAPTER VIII

WHAT JACK AND DICK OVERHEARD


"I beg your pardon, Mr.---, I did not catch your name," continued
Dr. Wise, "but you have no authority in this case. You are not a
civil magistrate, not even a police court judge, and you cannot
hold this boy for any jury, grand or little. You can make a charge
against him, it is true, and then if the local magistrate considers
the evidence good he will be held for the Grand Jury. You are
doubtless unaware, being a stranger to the section, that I am a
magistrate myself, although seldom called upon to adjudge cases."

"I was not aware of it, sir," said the other, a little shamefaced.
"I may have been hasty, but my association with suspicious
characters-----"

"Has made him one himself," muttered Percival, whereat Jack could
not help smiling.

"Has made me suspect persons unjustly, perhaps," the detective
went on. "Still you must admit yourself that the finding of the
watch, as related by you, is, to say the least, singular."

"Singular, yes; suspicious, not necessarily. You say yourself
that the watch was supposedly passed from one person to another.
Why could not one of the suspected men have slipped it in Sheldon's