lf--that I knows on! No, Leather, if
Captain Wilmot had axed me if I saw _you_ carried off, I might ha' been
putt in a fix, but he didn't ax me that. He axed if I'd seen the man
that carried you off an' I told the truth when I said I had _not_.
Moreover I wasn't bound to show him that he wasn't fit to be a lawyer--
specially when he was arter an innocent man, an' might p'r'aps hang him
without a trial. It was my duty to guide the captain in pursuit of
outlaws, an' it is my duty to shield an innocent man. Between the two
perplexin' duties I tried to steer as straight a course as I could, but
I confess I had to steer pretty close to the wind."

"Well, Hunky, it is my duty to thank you instead of criticising you as I
have done, but how do you come to be so sure that I'm innocent?"

"P'r'aps because ye putt such an innocent question," replied Ben, with a
little smile. "D'ye raily think, Leather, that an old scout like me is
goin' to let you see through all the outs and ins by which I comes at my
larnin'! It's enough for you to know, boy, that I know a good deal more
about you than ye think--more p'r'aps than ye know about yerself. I
don't go for to say that you're a born angel, wantin' nothin' but a pair
o' wings to carry ye off to the better land--by no means, but I do know
that as regards jinin' Buck Tom's boys, or takin' a willin' part in
their devilish work, ye are innocent an' that's enough for me."

"I'm glad you know it and believe it, Ben," said Leather, earnestly,
"for it is true. I followed Buck, because he's an old, old chum, and I
did it at the risk of my life, an' then, as perhaps you are aware, we
were chased and I got injured. So far I am innocent of acting with
these men, but, O Ben, I don't admit my innocence in anything else! My
whole life--well, well--it's of no use talkin'. Tell me, d'ye think
there's any chance o' Buck getting over this?"

"He may. Nobody can tell. I'll do my best for him. I never lose hope
of a man, after what I've see'd in my experience, till the breath is
fairly out of him."

"Thank God for these words, Ben."

"Yes," continued the scout, "and your friend Brooke is at this moment
sunk in the blue dumps because you have been carried off by a great
mysterious monster!"

"Then he doesn't know it was you?" exclaimed Leather.

"In course not. An' he doesn't know you are within five hundred yards
of him. An' what's more, you mustn't let him know it was me, for that