"I see, Mr. Branford, I must be even more explicit with you. But I expected it from what I have heard of you. In brief, then, and coming directly to my point, Mr. Hyde has every reason to believe that it was you who so pluckily grappled with him, as he jumped down from the mill fence on the night of the fire. He believes also that you know who his companions were, and that there is a special reason why you have in no way betrayed him, or them, since your discovery. Now, since you have had a reason of your own for keeping this knowledge to yourself so long, doubtless you will have a reason to still maintain your reticence. So we are asking you to do nothing that you have not already done, Mr. Branford; probably nothing but that you still propose to do. We only say we are much interested in you; we think so able a young fellow as you have shown yourself to be should have the education he so much desires; and as a token of our good will merely, we propose to present you with a thousand dollars in cash, when you give us the assurance that you will not remember on the witness stand that you saw either of those four men on the night of the fire. My friend, Mr. Wilson, has the money with him now, and will hand it over to you as soon as you give us this promise. You understand me, I trust, Mr. Branford." These words were very persuasively and smilingly uttered. And to make the temptation as great as possible, Mr. Wilson took out his pocketbook, and counting ten one hundred dollar bills, laid them on the table in easy reach of the lad. "Just your promise, Mr. Branford, that you will throughout the trial maintain the position you have steadily held since the fire, and you may put those bills into your pocket," he said, and as though he felt sure of the lad's acceptance he closed his pocketbook, and put it away. How did the temptation affect Ray? It opened his eyes to the true position he had been occupying all those weeks, and enabled him to see himself as he had not done before. It was a rude awakening. The shock was one that filled him with alarm. Could it be possible that the standpoint he had taken respecting his duty in this matter of the fire was one that led the criminals themselves to believe he was in sympathy with them? Had they really thought he could be bought with a price? That he would sell his manhood, his Christian faith, betray his Master, for a paltry thousand dollars? The blood boiled within him at the insult, and yet he restrained himself. He even grew perfectly calm, and smiled upon them. He felt his contemptible position had merited just such a stinging rebuke. More than that, he had determined to outwit these scoundrels, and even before he left the city to clear his name and reputation from every shadow of reproach that his weeks of silence had brought upon it.