To his mind, the sound of the
weapon intimated some catastrophe, and he said nothing at the time as to
his meeting with Mr. Briscoe. That circumstance seemed to him of no
importance. He was afraid of being numbered among the suspects if any
evil deed had been done. He heard the searching parties out all night,
and it was a terrible sound! "It was too aisy fur a poor man to be laid
by the heels fur a job he niver done, bedad, as was the case at present."
He permitted himself, however, to be persuaded to let a charge of
vagrancy be entered against him and go to jail, really to be held as a
witness in the event of more developments in the Briscoe case; for the
authorities desired that no arrests in that connection should be made
public until the significance of the fact that at the time of the tragedy
the child was wearing the coat--afterward found hanging loose, without a
rent or a blemish, on the tree in the valley--should be fully exploited.
If it were indeed a direful instance of murder and abduction, as the
sheriff now believed, he wished the miscreants to rest unwitting of the
activity of the officers and the menace of discovery.
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