“I suppose not,” said Pillingshot.
“Don’t be discouraged. You’re doing fine.”
“I know,” said Pillingshot. “I shall find that quid all right.”
“Nothing like sticking to it.”
Pillingshot shuffled, then rose to a point of order.
“I’ve been reading those Sherlock Holmes stories,” he said, “and Sherlock Holmes always got a fee if he brought a thing off. I think I ought to, too.”
“Mercenary young brute.”
“It has been a beastly sweat.”
“Done you good. Supplied you with a serious interest in life. Well, I expect Evans will give you something—a jewelled snuffbox or something—if you pull the thing off.”
“I don’t.”
“Well, he’ll buy you a tea or something.”
“He won’t. He’s not going to break the quid. He’s saving up for a camera.”
“Well, what are you going to do about it?”
Pillingshot kicked the leg of the table.
“You put me on to the case,” he said casually.
“What! If you think I’m going to squander—”
“I think you ought to let me off fagging for the rest of the term.”
Scott reflected.
“There’s something in that. All right.”
“Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it. You haven’t found the quid yet.”
“I know where it is.”
“Where?”
“Ah!”
“Fool,” said Scott.
After breakfast next day Scott was seated in his study when Pillingshot entered.
“Here you are,” said Pillingshot.
He unclasped his right hand and exhibited a sovereign. Scott inspected it.
“Is this the one?” he said.
“Yes,” said Pillingshot.
“How do you know?”
“It is. I’ve sifted all the evidence.”
“Who had bagged it?”
“I don’t want to mention names.”
“Oh, all right. As he didn’t spend any of it, it doesn’t much matter. Not that it’s much catch having a thief roaming at large about the house. Anyhow, what put you on to him? How did you get on the track? You’re a jolly smart kid, young Pillingshot. How did you work it?”
“I have my methods,” said Pillingshot with dignity.
“Buck up. I shall have to be going over to school in a second.”
“I hardly like to tell you.”
“Tell me! Dash it all, I put you on to the case. I’m your employer.”
“You won’t touch me up if I tell you?”
“I will if you don’t.”
“But not if I do?”
“No.”
“And how about the fee?”
“That’s all right. Go on.”
“All right then. Well, I thought the whole thing over, and I couldn’t make anything out of it at first, because it didn’t seem likely that Trent or any of the other fellows in the dormitory had taken it; and then suddenly something Evans told me the day before yesterday made it all clear.”
“What was that?”
“He said that the matron had just given him back his quid, which one of the housemaids had found on the floor by his bed. It had dropped out of his pocket that first night.”
Scott eyed him fixedly. Pillingshot coyly evaded his gaze.
“That was it, was it?” said Scott.
Pillingshot nodded.
“It was a clue,” he said. “I worked on it.”
Colophon
School Stories
was compiled from short stories published between 1900 and 1910 by
P. G. Wodehouse.
This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
B. Timothy Keith,
and is based on transcriptions produced between 2003 and 2005 by
Susan L. Shell, Charles Franks, and The Online Distributed Proofreading Team
for
Project Gutenberg (Tales of St. Austin’s and The Politeness of Princes, and Other School Stories)
and on digital scans available at the
Internet Archive(Tales of St. Austins, The Swoop! and Other Stories and The Uncollected Wodehouse).
The cover page is adapted from
Harrow School,
a painting completed in 1907 by
John Fulleylove.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by
The League of Moveable Type.
The first edition of this ebook was released on
February 20, 2020, 9:37 p.m.
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