"You left too many straws for the beaks to take hold of." A low, gutteral laugh was the only answer vouchsafed to this by Mr. Perry Jounce.
"You know the job was a botch?"
"I don't know nothin' about it."
"Well, anyhow, Andrew does, and he refuses to pay a cent until somebody goes up for the murder of that girl. Do you understand?"
"No, I don't!"
The eyes of the tramp still fixed themselves in an ugly glow on the countenance of Keene.
"Well, so long as the hounds are on the scent there's danger to Andrew, that to you must be plain enough; and danger to yourself as well. Now, why not fix the crime on some one, and thus make it safe for Andrew and you beyond peradventure? That is the plan, and until that is carried out my friend Barkswell doesn't propose to pay out any money."
"And he wants me to fix that thing of killin' the gal onto an innersent man."
"Exactly."
"Good land, what does he take me for?"