Page:The Eight-Oared Victors.djvu/189

Rh "He did."

"Then I'll settle with him, too. But, Tom, I wanted to ask if you thought there was any chance of finding my brooch?"

"I don't know, Ruth. It begins to look rather hopeless."

"That's what I thought, and, as long as I'm not going to get it back I may as well admit that it is gone. I can't go on deceiving people this way, even in so small a matter. I suppose it was careless of me to let the clasp get broken in the first place. I put it on in a hurry one day, and strained it. And in the second place, I suppose I ought to have given it to a more reliable jeweler.

"But that Mr. Farson called at the college one day soliciting repair work to do. He said he had some from Boxer Hall, so I thought he was all right, and let him take my pin. I'm sorry now."

"Yes, it is too bad," assented Tom, "but it can't be helped. I don't really believe, Ruth, that there's any use looking on this island for the pin. I have been keeping my eyes open for it, but I'm beginning to think that it's like hunting for the proverbial thimble in the straw pile."

"You mean needle in the haystack."

"Well, it's the same thing. I never can get those proverbs straight. The only hope is that we might, some day, discover who took the things, and your brooch might be recovered. But it's a