handsprings, and all sorts of things.
The only person he asks to see is young Burns. I can't fathom him."

The father lowered his eyes. He knew well that Harry did not ask for
him.

"If it wasn't for these suspicious actions, doctor, I'd let him have the
full run of the jail yard, but I dassent let him have any liberties.
Why, he can go up the side of the cells like a squirrel! He'd go over
our wall like a cat--no doubt of it."

The minister spoke with some effort. "I think you misread my son. He is
not one to flee from punishment. He has some other idea in his mind."

To Jack Burns alone, plain, plodding, and slow, Harold showed a smiling
face. He met him with a boyish word--"Hello, Jack! how goes it?"--and
was eager to talk. He reached out and touched him with his hands
wistfully. "I'm glad you've come. You're the only friend I've got now,
Jack." This was one of the morbid fancies jail life had developed; he
thought everybody had turned against him. "Now, I want to tell you
something--we're chums, and you mustn't give me away. These fools think
I'm going to try to escape, but I ain't. You see, they can't hang me for
stabbing that coward, but they'll shut me up for a year or two, and
I've got to keep healthy, don't you see? When I get out o' this I strike
for the West, don't you see? And I've got to be able to do a day's work.
Look at this arm." He stripped his strong white arm for inspection.

In the midst of the excitement attending Harold's arrest, Dot's
elopement was temporarily diminished in value, but some shrewd gossip
connected the two events and said: "I believe Clint gibed Harry Excell
about Dot--I just believe that's what the fight was about."

This being repeated, not as an opinion but as the inside facts in the
case, sentiment turned swiftly in Harold's favor. Clinton was shrewd
enough to say very little about the quarrel. "I was just givin' him a
little guff, and he up and lit into me with a big claspknife." Such was
his story constantly repeated.

Fortunately for Harold, the case came to trial early in the autumn
session. It was the most dramatic event of the year, and it was
seriously suggested that it would be a good thing to hold the trial in
the opera house in order that all the townspeople should be able to
enjoy it. A cynical young editor made a counter suggestion: "I move we
charge one dollar per ticket and apply the funds to buying a fire
engine." Naturally, the judge of the district went