“I’ll—­I’ll make it all good now.  I have the money.  Can’t you—­can’t you give it back to Ed, the way the bonds—­”

“No!”

“Not to help me out?”

“No!”

“But you promised—­”

“I promised too much!  Will you tell everything, or—­”

There was a moment’s silence.  Sid was battling with his mean nature.  Even yet he was trying to find a way of escape—­to discover some plan by which he could avoid the shame of making a humiliating confession.

“Well?” asked Ida, and there was a new ring in her voice.

“I—­I suppose I’ll have to,” spoke Sid in low tones.

“Come, then.  I’ll go with you.”

An hour later Cora, Jack, Ed, Sid Wilcox and Ida Gales were seated in the library of the Kimball home.  Sid was uneasy, and Ida’s eyes showed that she had been weeping.

“Sid has something to tell you all,” began Ida, “and so have I. I guess you know what it’s about.”

Cora nodded and smiled at Ida.  Then she went over and stood beside the unhappy girl.

“I’ll make a clean breast of if, fellows,” began Sid hesitatingiy.  “I—­I really didn’t mean to make so much trouble over it, but one thing went to another, and when I started there didn’t seem to be any stopping place, or any way to get back.

“When Ed stooped over to fix the mud guard on Cora’s car, that day of the race and the collision, the wallet dropped from his pocket into the soft dust of the road.  I saw it and picked it up, intending first only to play a joke on him.  Ida and Mary Downs saw me, and—­well, I don’t know what they thought, but I only did it for fun.”

“Queer fun,” murmured Jack indignantly.

“I slipped out the money and bonds,” went on Sid, “and then Ed turned toward me, and I didn’t know what to do with the empty wallet.  There was only one chance, and I took it.  I dropped it in the tool-box of Cora’s car.  I was mean to do it, for I thought it might make a mix-up and add to the joke.”

Jack murmured something inaudible, and Cora shot a warning glance at her brother.

“Yes, it was a poor joke,” admitted Sid weakly, “but I’ve learned a lesson.  I found out it was going to cost considerable to fix my car, and as I had some other—­er—­well, expenses to meet, I just used some of Ed’s cash.  I knew I could pay it back later.

“That is, I thought I could, but my folks shut down can my allowance, and when I missed getting that job which Paul Hastings got I was in a bad way.  I didn’t know where I was to get the cash to repay Ed, and I didn’t dare say anything, for fear you’d have me arrested for stealing: