“We found out at length that the time when the robberies were effected must be between twelve and one, and it was secretly agreed that some one should be concealed in the studies for a day or two during those hours.  Carter undertook the office, and was ensconced in one of the big cupboards in a study which had not yet been touched.  On the third day he heard some one stealthily mount the stairs.  The fellows were more careful now, and used to keep their doors shut, but the person was provided with keys, and opened the study in which Carter was.  He moved about for a little time—­Carter watching him through the key-hole, and prepared to spring on him before he could make his escape.  Not getting much, the man at last opened the cup-board door, where Carter had just time to conceal himself behind a great-coat.  The great-coat took the plunderer’s fancy; he took it down off the peg, and there stood Carter before him!  Billy—­for it was he—­stood absolutely confounded, as though a ghost had suddenly appeared; and Carter, after enjoying his unconcealed terror, collared him, and hauled him off to the police station.  He was tried soon after, and finally confessed that it was he who had taken the cricket-money too; for which offences he was sentenced to transportation.  So Eric, dear Eric, at last your name was cleared.”

“As I always knew it would be, dear old boy,” said Wildney.

Montagu and Wildney found plenty to make them happy at Fairholm, and were never tired of Eric’s society, and of his stories about all that befell him on board the “Stormy Petrel.”  They perceived a marvellous change in him.  Every trace of recklessness and arrogance had passed away; every stain of passion had been removed; every particle of hardness had been calcined in the flame of trial.  All was gentleness, love, and dependence, in the once bright, impetuous, self-willed boy; it seemed as though the lightning of God’s anger had shattered and swept away all that was evil in his heart and life, and left all his true excellence, all the royal prerogatives of his character, pure and unscathed Eric, even in his worst days, was, as I well remember, a lovable and noble boy; but at this period there must have been something about him for which to thank God, something unspeakably winning, and irresistibly attractive.  During the day, as Eric was too weak to walk with them, Montagu and Wildney used to take boating and fishing excursions by themselves, but in the evening the whole party would sit out reading and talking in the garden till twilight fell.  The two visitors began to hope that Mrs. Trevor had been mistaken, and that Eric’s health would still recover; but Mrs. Trevor would not deceive herself with a vain hope, and the boy himself shook his head when they called him convalescent.