done nothing more than my duty."

"Then you believe it is all right to break into your uncle's safe, and
take his money and his papers?"

"Circumstances alter cases."

"They don't make black white."

"Sometimes a man's hypocrisy whitewashes his whole life. Sometimes a man
lives for years on his ill-gotten gains, and all the world thinks he is
an honest man. Then circumstances make black white."

"You are talking of something besides the subject before us. Let us come
back to it."

"No; I am talking about the subject before us."

"You confess that you robbed your uncle's safe."

"I admit that I helped myself to certain things in it which I wanted. I
am ready to admit it anywhere you choose to place me," I replied, easily
and good-naturedly.

"Are you aware that you have committed a crime?" said he, more
pointedly than he had before spoken.

"I don't think I have committed any crime, or even any wrong. If you
think so, Mr. Tom Thornton, you are welcome to your opinion."

"I do think so," he answered, beginning to be a little excited. "Do you
know that I can arrest you, and send you to prison?"

"I do know it; and I respectfully ask, Why don't you do it?"

"Why don't I do it?" repeated he, apparently amazed at my impudence, and
disappointed because an arrest and a prison appeared to have no terrors
to me.

"Yes, why don't you do it?"

"I'll tell you why I don't do it. Because your uncle is weak, and don't
wish to injure you. That's the reason."

"That isn't the reason. I want to tell you, Mr. Tom Thornton, that
nothing would suit me better than to have you arrest me, and send me to
prison."

This answer vexed him so much that he jumped up, and walked off.

CHAPTER XVI.

IN WHICH ERNEST MAKES A LANDING ON THE HUDSON.

TOM THORNTON was no fool, and it was easy enough for him to see that I
understood the situation. It was useless for him to tell me that any
tenderness on the part of my uncle saved me from arrest, for the son
would have crushed me like a worm beneath his feet in spite of the
father. I think he got up and left me because he could not control his
temper, and feared a scene. He cooled off in a few moments, and came
back, as I knew he would.

"You defy me to arrest you--do you, Ernest?" said he, dropping into the
seat at my side.

"Yes; if you wish to put it in that form, I defy you to arrest me. I
repeat that I should be very glad to have you do it."

"Why so?" asked he, ne