e lay there in his
High Church parson's coat with the tails nearly to his feet, his stiff
white collar and the big gold cross--real for true gold--swinging as
low as his hair watch chain. Yes, I would--but for one thing. The
Hayfork Minister lay with his mouth open, his temples bleeding a little
where he had hit a piece of stone, and he looked dead--painfully dead.
If he had looked a bit alive, I wouldn't have minded sticking the hook
into him. Just think of all that chase, and his pretending to hunt the
murderers of poor Harry, and sending me up that drain pipe--and all in
the interests, as was now proven, of the murderers themselves. It was
enough to make a Quaker kick his mother.

There was also, though I had not noticed it at first, one thing more.
The portfolio that I had supposed to contain my father's stolen papers
and the proofs of the crime--well, there it lay, with the lock broken,
and ready for me to find all about the foul treachery of the Hayfork
Minister.

I was sure I should trap him now. I tell you I was so mad that I began
to think of his being hung. And how glad I would be to see the black
flag go up over the jail at Longtown. I meant to go there to see and
cry "Hooray!"--I was so mad at his taking us all in. But, at any rate,
I had a right to look, if only to search for my father's papers. It
was I who had caught him, as it were, in the act.

I argued that it must be something very precious for the Hayfork
Minister to keep it all the time by him, even when he was striking out
his hardest, and knowing himself closely pursued. He had heard the
roar as the people of Breckonside burst the barred door and came
tumbling into the Grange barn. And that was a good deal worse than Mad
Jeremy's howls--at least, to hear. Yet he had never let go, nor tried
any other way of getting rid of his burden, not even in the sham ruin,
where there were bound to be pints of hidie-holes among the ivy. But
no; Mr. Ablethorpe held on to his leather case and just shanked it the
faster. I believe if it had not been for that and my knowing the
country better, I would not have nabbed him as I did. It must,
therefore, as I made sure, be something worth having, when he was so
set on getting safe off with it as all that.

So I took the case and cautiously opened the leather top. It folded
over like a square cap. I found no papers! "Well, I'm blowed!"--yes,
I said that! Mother said I might, so as to keep me from