"On the contrary, Maydew. It's blue for the Doctor; and it shows--what
he's always saying to us himself, for that matter--that if you do a
wrong thing, you've nearly always got to do another, or perhaps two, to
bolster up the first. Sherlock Holmes often finds out one crime owing
to the criminal doing another, and no doubt this has happened to the
Doctor. He has told a deliberate, carefully planned lie, and a
barefaced lie too; because he must know that he stole the thing out of
Pratt's desk. Anyhow, my course is clear."
I said I was glad to hear that, because it didn't look at all clear to
me. Then Peters said--
"I, personally, have got nothing to do with the Doctor's wickedness in
the matter. In my opinion that is Pratt's affair."
But I felt pretty sure Pratt wouldn't bother about it.
"Anyway," said Peters, "I now return Pratt his pencil-sharpener, and
there my duty as the detective of the case ceases. Sherlock Holmes
often did a tremendous deed and only told the way he'd done it to
Watson. And so it is here. It is not my work to bring the Doctor to
justice, and I'm not going to try to do it."
I said he was right, because, while he was bringing the Doctor to
justice, he might get expelled, and that wouldn't be much of a catch for
anybody.
So the first thing after morning school we went to Pratt, and Peters put
on his Holmes manner and said--
"Well, Pratt, no news of the missing pencil-sharpener, I suppose?"