ands on the sill, gave a light spring, and went
through the pane like an eel.

"That settles it!" he heard Stebbins saying outside. And all the idlers
were laughing because it was done so nimbly.

"That boy's right smart of a fool," said one of the lookers-on. "Now, if
that had been me, I'd hev made out to git stuck somehows in that winder;
I'd have scotched my wheel somewhere."

"Ef ye hed, I'd have dragged ye through ennyhow," declared Jim Dow, who
had no toleration of a joke on a serious subject. "This hyar boy air a
deal too peart ter try enny sech fool tricks on _Me_!"

Barney hardly knew how he got back into the wagon; he only knew that
they were presently jolting along once more in the midst of the yellow
glare of sunlight. It had begun to seem that there was no chance for
him. Like Nick, he too had madly believed, in spite of everything, that
something would happen to help him. He could not think that, innocent as
he was, he would be imprisoned. Now, however, this fate evidently was
very close upon him.

Suddenly Jim Dow spoke. "I s'pose ye war powerful disapp'inted kase ye
couldn't git yerself hitched in that thar winder; ye air too well used
to it,--ye hev been through it afore."

"I hev never been through it afore!" cried Barney indignantly.

"Well, well," said Stebbins pacifically, "it wouldn't have done you any
good if you hadn't gone through the pane just now. I'd have only thought
you were one of those who stood on the outside. You see, the _main_
point against you is that scrap of your coat and your button found right
there by the Conscripts' Hollow,--though, of course, your going through
the window-pane so easy makes it more complete."

Barney's tired brain began to fumble at this problem,--how did it
happen?

He had not been on the ledge nor at the Conscripts' Hollow for six
months at least. Yet there was that bit of his coat and his button found
on the bush close at hand only to-day.

Was it possible that he could have exchanged coats by mistake with Nick
the last afternoon that they were on the crag together?

"Did Nick wear _my_ coat down on the ledge, I wonder, an' git it tored?
Did Nick see the plunder in the Conscripts' Hollow, an' git skeered, an'
then sot out ter lyin' ter git shet o' the blame?"

As he asked himself these questions, he began to remember, vaguely,
having seen, just as he was falling asleep, his friend's head slowly
disappearing beneath the verge of the crag.

"N