CHAPTER V.

UNJUST SUSPICIONS.

WALTER was at work in good time the following morning, but the foreman and Frank were both at the yard before him, and the foreman spoke angrily to Walter as he entered the workshop. "If this is what is to come of your going to the evening school, Walter, why I, for one, should say the sooner you give it up the better."

As he spoke, he held up before Walter's astonished gaze a large chisel and a fine saw, both of them covered with rust.

Walter and Frank took it by turns, for a week together, to put away all the tools carefully before leaving the yard at night. It was then Walter's week, and he felt sure that he had in no way neglected his duty, and that he had left everything in proper order before going home the previous evening.

The sight of the tools, rusted as they were by exposure to the damp night air, puzzled him extremely.

[Illustration: He held up a large chisel and a fine saw, both covered with rust.]

"I'm quite sure," he said, "that I did not leave those tools out last night."

"Nay, nay, that is only making bad, worse. I found them myself lying on the ground in the open shed yonder. You are generally such a careful lad, that I was the more surprised when I learned that it was your week. All I say is, be more particular for the future, or Mr. King will find that your lessons will cost him dear."

"But, indeed," cried Walter, with a bewildered look, "indeed I put them all away. I recollect perfectly doing so; and it is not so long ago that I could be mistaken."

"I'll not hear another word," replied the foreman, angrily. "Facts speak for themselves, and it is perfectly useless trying to make me disbelieve my own eyes. Who do you think would come here and take the tools out after you had put them away?"

"Who indeed?" thought Walter.

And at that moment he raised his eyes, and met those of Frank Hardy fixed upon him with a malicious expression, as if rejoicing in his trouble.

A strange thought flashed across Walter's mind: "What if Frank had done it out of spite?" He looked him full in the face, almost inquiringly, and Frank's eyes fell beneath the earnest gaze of his companion.

"Some one must have done it out of ill-feeling to me," said Walter quietly.

"A very likely story!" said the foreman. "Did you never hear that a bad excuse is worse than none? My advice to you is to hold your tongue about the matter, and to be more careful for the future."

Walter saw that he was not believed; and when Mr. King came to the yard, in the course of the day, he felt sure that the foreman had told him about the tools being left out, as his master's manner to him was not so cordial as usual.

"You be sure and see that all is straight before you leave this evening," said Mr. King to Walter. "Your evening studies must not interfere with your duty to me, remember."

Walter coloured deeply, knowing to what his master alluded.

"I never yet failed in my duty, sir, and I hope I never shall."

"The least said about that the better, Walter," said his master. "I am quite ready, however, to make allowance for a first offence; only don't let it happen again."

Mr. King left the yard as he uttered these words, and Walter turned towards Frank with tears in his eyes.

"Do you know anything about the tools, Frank?"

"I! What should I know about them? It wasn't my business to put them away."

"No, I know it wasn't; only I thought that perhaps you might have wanted to use them after I had put them away; and, if you did so, I would not say a word about it, Frank, if you would only just tell me; for I feel so certain I put them all away, and it makes me feel so unhappy to be suspected."

"I know nothing about them," said Frank, doggedly.

"What is the matter with you, Walter?" said his mother that evening, as her son sat poring over the fire, and scarcely speaking a word.

"Nothing, mother, nothing; at least, nothing very particular," he added.

"Nay, Walter, it cannot be a mere trifle which has made you so different from what you generally are. Tell me what it is, my son; maybe I can help you."

"I never did yet keep anything from you, dear mother," said Walter; "only, in this instance, I thought I might be mistaken, and I did not like to say anything to you until I was quite certain."

Walter then told his mother all that had taken place at the yard that morning, and ended by assuring her that he had left nothing undone when he left work the previous evening.

"It is hard, mother, is it not, that both Mr. King and the foreman suspect me?"

"And yet it is only one of the little daily crosses which, as servants of Christ, we are called upon to bear," said Mrs. White. "If our blessed Saviour, 'who did no sin,' suffered unjustly, we should think it no strange thing that we should; and knowing how patiently and meekly He bore insult and wrong, we should pray for His Spirit to enable us to do so also."

Walter sighed; he felt that all his mother said was true.

"But yet 'Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. And He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noon-day' (Psalm xxxvii. 5-6). All will come right, Walter, in God's own time; rest assured of that. Meanwhile do your duty strictly to your master; bear no ill-will towards any one; seek for no revenge, even if you come to be certain of the justice of your suspicions; remember that Jesus Christ prayed for His enemies, and that, in every action of His most sinless life, He left us an example that we should follow in His steps."

"Mother, it always does me good to talk to you; and, indeed, I bear no ill-will towards Frank."

"Would you go out of your way to do him a kindness, Walter?"

"I hope so, mother," replied Walter.

Several days passed by after the above conversation, and nothing took place of any consequence in the yard. Mr. King and the foreman appeared to have forgotten all about the tools, and behaved in their usual cordial manner towards Walter, who regained all his former cheerfulness, and had almost forgotten that anything unpleasant had ever taken place.

They were very busy at the yard. Mr. King had a great deal of work to do in the lower village, where several houses were being built on the sea-shore, and they were working hard to get them completed before the winter set in. Both Frank and Walter worked overtime every evening, for which they were paid; but Walter never missed going to the night school, although by so doing, he lost the extra pay he would have received. His lessons were a pleasure to him, and he felt sure they would hereafter be a profit as well. He was making great progress in drawing, and also in mensuration and the higher branches of arithmetic—all of which would tend to advance him in the trade he was learning.

By degrees, all the boys and young lads of the neighbourhood had joined the classes, with the exception of Frank and his brothers and Tom Haines. Frank would often ridicule Walter for giving up all his evenings to his lessons, and more than once, he mysteriously hinted that he knew an easier way of making money than by fagging away at books every spare moment, as Walter was doing.

Walter recalled to mind the fact that twice, within the past few weeks, Frank had wanted to borrow money of him, although he was earning more money than Walter, on account of working overtime. This did not look as if Frank was very rich, and Walter told him so, adding—"I'm quite contented with my path, Frank, and I wish I could have persuaded you to follow it also."

"Thank you for your good wishes," said Frank, laughing, as he took up his cap and left the yard.

Walter heard him the next moment talking to Tom Haines, who had been waiting for him outside. There was something about Tom which made Walter shrink from any companionship with him. Once it had not been so; he remembered, when his mother had first cautioned him against being intimate with Tom Haines, that he had thought it a little hard, having been flattered, as a great many foolish boys are apt to be, by the attention of one who was several years older than himself. He had obeyed his mother, however, as he always tried to do; and now, in this case, as in every other, he had come to feel how right she was in the advice she had given him.

There was something in Tom Haines' manner to Frank which struck Walter particularly. It seemed to the boy as if Tom felt that he had Frank in his power in some way or other, and could make any use of him he liked. The following day, Frank paid Walter the two small sums he had borrowed from him, and rattled some money, which sounded like silver, in his waistcoat pocket, to show that he had more remaining.

"Are you sure you can spare it, Frank?" said Walter, as he held the money in his hand.

"Don't you hear I have plenty more?" replied his companion, rattling his pocket again as he spoke.

"Yes; but is it your own, your very own, Frank?" And then, feeling ashamed of the suspicions which arose in his mind, he added—"I beg your pardon, Frank, only I thought that perhaps you had been borrowing money in order to pay me, on account of what I said yesterday; and I am in no hurry, and would rather wait than—"

Here Walter stopped again, and seemed at a loss what to say.

"Don't be afraid, Walter; I earned it all, I tell you. Didn't I tell you yesterday that I had found an easy way of earning money and a pleasant way enough as well?"

Frank spoke in such a cheerful tone that, Walter thought he must have been mistaken in thinking that there was anything wrong in the matter. So he took the money, and thought how nice it really must be to be able to earn money so easily. His mother wanted a warm cloak against the cold weather set in; what if he could get enough to buy her one? He almost felt as though he should like to ask Frank something about the way in which he earned his money.

The lads were preparing to leave work, and, as Walter was hesitating whether to ask Frank about his "easy way," Tom Haines put his head in at the door of the yards and beckoned to Frank. There was a bad expression on Tom's face.

"Make haste," he muttered; "I've been waiting ever so long."

Walter glanced at Frank. The lively, boastful manner was all gone, and he looked pale and nervous.

"I'll come in a minute; I did not know it was so late." And then, turning to Walter, he asked him to help in putting away the tools.

Walter at once complied with Frank's request, although it was the class-evening, and he wanted to be home early.

He was ready to do Frank a kindness, even at inconvenience to himself.

"You are a good-natured fellow," said Frank.

"Don't talk so," said Walter. "We should always be ready to help one another."

Then, looking round to see that Tom was not within hearing, he said, in a low voice, "Oh, Frank, I wish you would not be so much with Tom Haines; I am sure it is not for your good, and—"

"It's too late now, Walter; I must go on with it."

There was a sad, reckless tone in Frank's voice, and Walter fancied he saw tears in his eyes.

"It is never too late to do better whilst God spares our lives. Frank, can I help you?" whispered Walter. "Or can mother? She would in a minute, I know, and I will ask her this very evening."

"No, no; it's too late, Walter." And Frank darted out of the yard into the darkness.

"It is not an 'easy way' after all," thought Walter. "Thank God, I have never been tempted to try it, whatever it may be."