ter them rascally no-'count burglars. I saw ye and
yer looks, and I suspicioned some sech game. Ye don't cheat the law in
_this_ deestrick--not often! Ye air the very boy, I reckon, what
holped ter rob Blenkins's store. Whar's the other burglars? Ye'd better
tell!"

"I dunno!" cried Nick tremulously. "I never had nothin' ter do with
'em."

"Ye hev told on yerself," the man retorted. "Why did ye stand a-gapin'
at the Conscripts' Hollow, ef ye didn't know thar was suthin special
thar?"

Nick, in his confusion, could invent no reply, and he was afraid to tell
the truth. He looked mutely at the officer, who held his arm and looked
down sternly at him.

"Ye air a bad egg,--that's plain. I'll take ye along whether I ketches
the other burglars or no."

They toiled up the steep ascent in silence, and before very long were on
the summit of the mountain, and within view of the crag.

There on the great gray cliff, in the midst of the lonely woods, were
several men whom Nick had never before seen. Their busy figures were
darkly defined against the hazy azure of the distant ranges, and as they
moved about, their shadows on the ground seemed very busy too, and
blotted continually the golden sunshine that everywhere penetrated the
thinning masses of red and bronze autumn foliage.

A wagon, close at hand, was already half full of the stolen goods, and a
number of men were going cautiously up and down the face of the cliff,
bringing articles, or passing them from one to another.

"Well, this _is_ a tedious job!" exclaimed the sheriff, John Stebbins by
name. He was a quick-witted, good-natured man, but being active in
temperament, he was exceedingly impatient of delay. "How long did it
take 'em to get all those heavy things down into the Conscripts'
Hollow,--hey, bub?" he added, appealing to Nick, who had been brought to
his notice by the constable. It was terrible to Nick that they should
all speak to him as if he were one of the criminals. He broke out with
wild protestations of his innocence, denying, too, that he had had any
knowledge of what was hidden in the Conscripts' Hollow.

"Then what made ye run, yander on the slope, when ye seen thar war
somebody on the ledge?" demanded the constable.

Nick had a sudden inspiration. "Waal," he faltered, with an explanatory
sob, which was at once ludicrous and pathetic, "I war too fur off ter
make out fur sure what 'twar on the ledge. 'Twar black-lookin', an' I
'lowed 'twar a b