The younger man would have passed by him without speaking, but the old man thrust his broad shape directly in the little man's course. “Son,” he said, putting a hand on the other's arm, “I want to have a little talk with you--ez a friend. Jest you furgit all about me bein' a judge. I wisht, ef you ain't got anythin' else to do, you'd come up to my house to-night after you've had your supper. Will you, son?” Emanuel, his eyes filling up, said he would come, and he did; and in the judge's old sitting-room they spent half an hour together. Father Minor always said that when it came to hearing confessions the only opposition he had in town came from a nonprofessional, meaning by that Judge Priest. It was one of Father Minor's little jokes. “And now, Judge Priest,” said Emanuel, at the latter end of the talk, “you know everything--why I wouldn't tell 'em how I got my new clarinet and where I spent that night. If I had to die for it I wouldn't bring suspicion on an innocent party. I haven't told anybody but you--you are the only one that knows.” “You're shore this here friend of yourn--Caruthers--is an innocent party?” suggested the judge. “Why, Judge, he's bound to be--he's just naturally bound to be. If he'd been a thief he'd have robbed the bank that night when I was asleep in his room at the hotel. I had the keys to the bank on me and he knew it.” “Thai why didn't you come out and say so.” “Because, as I just told you, it would be bringing suspicion on an innocent party. He holds a responsible position with that big New York firm I was telling you about and it might have got him into trouble. Besides”--and Emanuel hung his head--“besides, I hated so to have people know that I was ever under the influence of liquor. I'm a church member, Judge, as you know. I never drank--to excess--before that night, and I don't ever aim to touch another drop as long as I live. I'd almost as lief be called a drunkard as a thief. They're calling me a thief--I don't aim to have them calling me the other thing too.” Judge Priest cloaked an involuntary smile behind a pudgy hand. “Well, Emanuel,” he said, “jest to be on the safe side, did it ever occur to you to make inquiry amongst the merchants here as to whether a travelling gent named Caruthers sold goods to any of 'em?” “No, Judge; I never thought of that.” “Did you look up Gatling & Moore--I believe that's the name--in Bradstreet's or Dun's to see ef there was sech a firm?” “Judge, I never thought of that either.” “Son,” said the old man, “it sorter looks to me like you ain't been doin' much thinkin' lately.” Then his tone changed and became warmly consoling. “But I reckin ef I was the trouble you're in I wouldn't do much thinkin' neither. Son, you kin rest easy in your mind--I ain't a-goin' to betray your confidences. But ef you don't mind I aim to do a little inquirin' round on my own account. This here robbery interests me powerfully, someway. I've been frettin' a heap about it lately.