If the stranger had been apprehended and if Hammond were really his confederate, then the stranger might, under cross-examination, betray Hammond, who would at once be arrested.
Now that Eleanor had become her friend, Grace knew that she would never expose Marian in class meeting, but even with this menace removed, still nothing could disguise the fact that the judge's gift could not be honestly accounted for.
Grace believed that Henry Hammond had appropriated the money for his own use.

She did not place any dependence in his story of having lost it through speculation.

She therefore resolved that he should return it if she could devise any means of making him do so, without subjecting him to public exposure.
For Marian's sake, she would refrain from carrying the matter into court, and she reluctantly decided to say nothing about the meeting between Hammond and the prisoner that she had witnessed at the station on the night of her return from New York.
Eleanor's surmise proved to be correct.

At the door of the station house, Grace's father awaited them, and they were conducted into the court room, where the first thing that caught Grace's attention was the eyes of the prisoner, that glared ferociously at her.
"So you're the fresh kid that got me jugged, are you!" he snarled with a menacing gesture.

"I'd like to get my hands on you for a couple of minutes." "Silence!" roared Chief Burroughs.
Then the examination began.