"You may be amused to know that I am also here about a crime. I thought
I'd found one out and, instead of that, I've jolly well committed a
crime myself. In fact, it's about the queerest thing, really, that has
ever happened in the annals of crime."
Then he told the story of the pencil-sharpener to James, and showed
James the pencil-sharpener to prove it. James actually had the
pencil-sharpener in his hand, when who should come in--not the
Doctor--but the matron, with the extraordinary news that the mother of
Peters was just arrived and had to see him at once! This was so awfully
surprising to Peters that he went straight away to the drawing-room and
left the pencil-sharpener with James; and in the drawing-room were the
Doctor and Peters's mother, who, after all, had merely come to tell him
that his uncle was dead. But far more important things than that
happened in the study, because when Peters arrived to see his mother,
the Doctor, having said something about bearing the shocks of life with
manly fortitude, went off to his study, and there, of course, was James
waiting for him.
And what James did we heard afterwards. First, on thinking it over, he
began to doubt why he should confess about the guinea-pig to the Doctor,
now that Peters had utterly forgiven him. And he speedily decided that
there was no occasion to do so. But then, out of gratitude to Peters,
he determined to carry through the delicate task of getting the
pencil-sharpener back to the Doctor. And he did. He told the Doctor
that he had taken the thing, because he thought it was Pratt's. He said
he felt sure Pratt must have left it in the study by mistake. But he
didn't say anything about thinking the Doctor had stolen it, and, in
fact, was so jolly cunning altogether that he never got into a row at
all. The Doctor ended up by remarking that Pratt's having one was a
curious coincidence, and he said to James, "As for you, boy James, you
stand acquitted of everything but too much zeal. Zeal, however----" and
then he talked a lot of stuff about zeal, which James did not remember.