ide; but Nick could hear the conversation that passed
between them.

"What about that fellow Pat?" she heard Madge inquire; and he could
barely refrain from giving a start that might have betrayed him, for
that question told him plainly that Patsy had already managed to arrive
among the hoboes, and--that his fate still hung in the balance. He
listened eagerly for Handsome's reply.

"I haven't had a chance to examine him yet," he said. "You wished me to
talk with him before I brought him to you."

"Go and bring him here now. Leave Turner here with me until you return."

"Get up there on the porch and sit down, Turner," he said. "Smoke your
pipe if you wish to. The queen won't object. I'll be back in a moment."

But when Handsome had hurried away to bring Patsy, and Nick had seated
himself upon a rustic chair, Madge came and stood in front of him.

"Turner," she said severely. "Tell me the truth now. What brought you
into this neighborhood?"

"The season of the year brought me," Nick replied to her as he had done
to Handsome.

"Who sent you?"

"Nobody sent me, ma'am."

"Swear to that."

"'Tain't necessary. I have said it."

"Do you know what would happen to you if I should find that you were
acting as a spy?"

"I suppose I could guess."

"I'd have you burned at the stake, just as Indians used to burn their
captives."

"Well, ma'am, I reckon I've lived too long a time now to be much afraid
of death. When a man has passed eighty, he ain't much afraid of things."

"Are you as old as that?"

"Old Bill Turner is eighty-four, ma'am; but he don't look it, does he?"

"No. I wish I could feel sure of you. I wish I could feel sure that you
are not a spy."

"Well, ma'am, it's my experience that we can't somehow help our feelings
much. If you are in doubt about it, treat it as you would an
earache--with silent contempt. Doubts, ma'am, are suthin' like boils;
they're the devil and all while you've got 'em; but they do get well
arter a while. You ain't got no call to doubt old Bill Turner, as I
knows on."

"I'll talk with you again, Turner. In the meantime, see that you walk in
a straight line."

"I can't do that no more. My old feet ain't so steady as they used to
be. But I'll do the best I can."

"We can't ask anybody to do more than that. Now keep silent. Here comes
Handsome with another man who I fear may be a spy."

Patsy, with his hair a brick-red, and with spots and freckles on his
face that were