"I can explain it. It's another confession. When the thing was new and
hot, and the town made a plan to ride him on a rail, my conscience
hurt me so that I couldn't stand it, and I went privately and gave him
notice, and he got out of the town and stayed out till it was safe to
come back."

"Edward! If the town had found it out--"

"DON'T! It scares me yet, to think of it. I repented of it the minute it
was done; and I was even afraid to tell you lest your face might betray
it to somebody. I didn't sleep any that night, for worrying. But after a
few days I saw that no one was going to suspect me, and after that I got
to feeling glad I did it. And I feel glad yet, Mary--glad through and
through."

"So do I, now, for it would have been a dreadful way to treat him.
Yes, I'm glad; for really you did owe him that, you know. But, Edward,
suppose it should come out yet, some day!"

"It won't."

"Why?"

"Because everybody thinks it was Goodson."

"Of course they would!"

"Certainly. And of course HE didn't care. They persuaded poor old
Sawlsberry to go and charge it on him, and he went blustering over there
and did it. Goodson looked him over, like as if he was hunting for a
place on him that he could despise the most; then he says, 'So you are
the Committee of Inquiry, are you?' Sawlsberry said that was about what
he was. 'H'm. Do they require particulars, or do you reckon a kind of a
GENERAL answer will do?' 'If they require particulars, I will come back,
Mr. Goodson; I will take the general answer first.' 'Very well, then,
tell them to go to hell--I reckon that's general enough. And I'll give
you some advice, Sawlsberry; when you come back for the particulars,
fetch a basket to carry what is left of yourself home in.'"

"Just like Goodson; it's got all the marks. He had only one vanity; he
thought he could give advice better than any other person."

"It settled the business, and saved us, Mary. The subject was dropped."

"Bless you, I'm not doubting THAT."

Then they took up the gold-sack mystery again, with strong interest.
Soon the conversation began to suffer breaks--interruptions caused by
absorbed thinkings. The breaks grew more and more frequent. At last
Richards lost himself wholly in thought. He sat long, gazing vacantly at
the floor, and by-and-by he began to punctuate his thoughts with
little nervous movements of his hands that seemed to indicate vexation.
Meantime his wife too had relapsed into a th