He was almost tempted to tear it open and possess himself of its contents, but Barton was moving toward him, with his eyes glued on the paper.
"I will take that piece of paper," the professor repeated, and Badger reluctantly gave it to him.
Agnew looked down at his work to veil the look of triumph that had come into his face.

Badger anxiously watched Barton as he opened the slip and glanced it over.
"That is your handwriting, I believe ?" in an ominous voice.
He held it for Badger to read, and, to the Kansan's intense astonishment, he saw that the paper was scribbled over with answers to the questions used in the examination, and that the handwriting seemed to be his own.

He was so bewildered he could not say a word.

Answers were there to only a part of the questions, however.
There was a strange look on Barton's bearded face.

He had seen Badger fishing in his right vest pocket for a stub of a pencil awhile before.
He thought, as he remembered this, that it was the left pocket of the vest.
"What is in that left pocket of your vest ?" he asked, in a voice that fairly made Badger jump.
Barton believed the slip he held in his fingers had come from that left pocket, and he thought it possible more like it might be concealed there.
"Not a thing!" said the Westerner, the angry flush in his face extending to the roots of his dark hair, for he was not accustomed to being spoken to in that suspicious tone, and it enraged him.
"Will you see if there is not ?" Barton asked, striving to maintain his calm, though his suspicions were growing.