"You mean, Howard, you're charging Miss Carpenter with having stolen the teachers' money?" Ellery asked with a smile.

The boy's dark glance wavered. "I mean maybe she took it like by mistake. Mislaid it or somepin'."

“As a matter of fact," came Louise's quiet voice, "when I saw the money wasn't in the envelope, my first thought was exactly that, Mr. Queen. So I searched myself thoroughly."

—"Object Lesson,"
Ellery Queen

Which line in this passage helps you to check the prediction you just made?

"You mean, Howard, you're charging Miss Carpenter with having stolen the teachers' money?"
The boy's dark glance wavered.
"I mean maybe she took it like by mistake."
"So I searched myself thoroughly."