CHAPTER XVIII.

PERCIVAL AND THE OWNER OF THE WATCH.

Perce stood aghast and trembling, trying to speak. The jeweler spoke for him.

“This boy didn’t steal it, did he? I know his father. He’s one of the selectmen of the town. You are Mr. Bucklin’s boy, aren’t you?”

“I am Percival Bucklin,” said Perce, endeavoring to assume the proverbial boldness of innocence, but nevertheless appearing far more guilty than if he had been a hardened rogue. “I didn’t steal it. I found it.”

“Yes, and I know just where you found it!” said Hatville. “I know, too, just where _you’ll_ be found, in about ten minutes, if Mr. Middleton will have the kindness to step out and call a policeman.”

“Give the boy a chance,” said the jeweler. “He belongs to one of the best families in town. I believe he’s honest. Tell just how you came by the watch, Percival.”

“That’s what I was going to do when this man rushed in and grabbed me,” said Perce.

He was once more beginning his story, when Mr. Hatville broke out again excitedly:

“Where’s the rest of the chain?”

“It’s just as I found it,” said Perce.

“And what’s the matter with the watch?” said Hatville. He had loosed his hold of the boy’s arm, and taken the timepiece in both hands. “It hasn’t run down!”

“Worse than that,” Mr. Middleton replied. “It has been in the water.”

“Boy!” cried the angry owner, “did you have it with you when you went out to the Old Cow for Oily Burdeen this morning?”

“Yes,” said Perce, “but——”

“And did you get wet?”

Hatville reached down and felt the boy’s clothes, which were still damp.

“A wave dashed over me,” Perce admitted, “but——”

[Illustration: “MR. HATVILLE STOOD A MOMENT AT THE OPEN DOOR, WATCHING THE JEWELER AND THE BOY.”]

“Now did you ever hear of anything so exasperating?” said Hatville, turning to Mr. Middleton with a grim and very unpleasant expression. “It wasn’t enough for this young rascal to take a man’s timepiece, that had been regulated down to a second and a half a month; but he must also go and jump into the sea with it!”

“I didn’t jump into the sea with it!” Perce spoke up impatiently. “Can’t you hear what I have to say? I found that watch in the seaweed, on the beach, early this morning, just as the tide had left it a little while before. If it hadn’t been for getting Olly off the rocks, I should have thought to bring it here earlier. I meant to have it cleaned and oiled, and then to advertise for the owner, if he wasn’t heard from in the meanwhile.”

“That seems a straightforward story,” said the jeweler.

“What made him so sly with you, then?” Mr. Hatville demanded. “Wasn’t he asking you to say nothing about it, or something of the kind, when I came in?”

The jeweler had to admit that Perce had made some such request; which the boy hastened to explain.

“I said all that; and I was going to say more. I didn’t want anybody to see it until it was advertised, and until the owner proved his claim by giving a description of it.”

“Ah, very wise, indeed! and very plausible! But how did the watch get into the seaweed, without help from somebody?” returned Hatville. “This boy, as it happens, is the only person who had a chance to take it. Now, young fellow, your best course is to own right up. Weren’t you in my room, at Mrs. Murcher’s, last night, and again this morning?”

“I don’t know anything about your room,” Perce replied. “I went through the upper entry to Olly’s room, last evening; but that was the only room I looked into. This morning I went into some gentleman’s room—I don’t know whose—to get a view from the window, while the ladies were hunting for a spy-glass; but I saw no watch there, and I didn’t touch a thing.”

“Besides, if you notice,” Mr. Middleton remarked, “this watch—to be more than eight hours slow, as you see it is, and still going—must have been in the water considerably more than eight hours.”

The argument seemed to strike Mr. Hatville forcibly. But a moment’s reflection enabled him to put it easily aside.

“It had probably run down,” he said; “and the boy has wound it since.”

“Why! I haven’t any key!” Perce exclaimed.

“And you didn’t know it was a stem-winder?” said the owner, with incredulous irony.

Perce said, very truly, that he hadn’t examined it sufficiently to discover that fact; he had heard of stem-winders, but had never before seen one. Mr. Hatville smiled again.

“I can’t yet feel quite so sure of this boy’s honesty as you seem to, Mr. Middleton,” he said. “There are some things that need to be explained: how the watch got out of my room and into the sea, in the first place; and how the chain was broken.”

“If I meant to steal it, why should I break the chain?” Perce demanded.

“I don’t know your motive; perhaps because you saw my monogram on the seal. Come, my boy,” said Mr. Hatville; “come and show me just where and how you found it.”

So saying, he left the watch in the jeweler’s hands, and started to return with Perce to the scene of the kelp-gathering.