“Faith, and you can, and I would of told you if it was wrong, your honor, but I thought it was all right if he is guilty of staling all the money, he ought to be punished, and I did not think it necessary to tell you. I expected to find out what he did with the money. Mebbe the poor fellow could get it back.” “You have a secret, Pat, and you must tell me all about it.” “Well, I have got to tell it some time, and if I tell it now, I will have to tell it over again, so what is the use of telling it twice?” “I believe it is something I should know now, and perhaps I do know, but not exactly what you do.” “If I tell you now, I may not tell it the same way the next time, and if you only hear anything once, you will always think that is right, and if you hear it twice and not alike, then ‘you have not told the truth’ is the first thing you are accused of.” “Well, Pat, that is right; but can not you remember how to tell it both times the same way?” “Yes, this ‘pen’ is holding three or four poor devils to-day for not remembering and telling it alike both times.” “I will let you think it over, Pat. Try to make up your mind to remember as you heard it. You may go now, and see if Mr. Pearson is all right. Report within the next half-hour.” “Now if he is all right, do you want me to report now, or wait the half-hour?” “Pat, if anything is wrong, let me know at once.” “That I will, your honor.” “Now Pat is gone, I must let the family know, and I think I should let them know at once, for I may not be able to get the officials together as soon as I should like to. I will risk it and call them over the wires, and try to explain some minor part to them, so they will know something is wrong. I can say that he had some trouble with one of the prisoners, as he has a black eye that Pat gave him. No, that won’t do. They would ask why I was holding him behind the bars if he had trouble. That has often happened and the officers are compelled to subdue the unruly prisoners, but they do not get locked up for it. I shall have to say something. When you try to fix up something, you never get it said just as you had it fixed up, so I’ll get them on the wire and trust to saying the right thing. “Central, give me Main 505, please. “Hello! Is this Mrs. Pearson? Mrs. Pearson, I have something to say to you. I should like you to come to the office at once. No, I hardly have time to tell you over the ’phone. Very well. Good-bye. “What did I say? I was so nervous I hardly knew. I don’t like to tell the family about the head of the household. I think that he could explain better himself. I really don’t know just what I did say. I think I did not tell them how bad things were. By George! I believe that is Mrs. Pearson coming—and the beautiful daughters too. It is. Did I tell her to come? Yes, and here comes Pat with Pearson. My God! has he had trouble with him again? He is covered with blood.”