“Say! You mean you——”
The man fell back, exhausted by his short outburst. “I don’t expect you to believe me,” he said wearily. “Nobody believed me. Nobody. But it’s true. There was a mistake, and everything was against me. Guess they were justified—I couldn’t prove I didn’t take the necklace. The evidence was too strong——”
“What necklace?” asked Jake with interest. “They said you stole a necklace somewhere?”
“Don’t bother him now, Jake.”
Burk sat up again. “I’m all right.” The warmth of the fire and the food they had given him seemed to have bestowed fresh energy. “I want to tell you, even if you don’t believe me. If I had been able to get away this time, I think I could have proved my innocence, but it was no use. But you boys, whoever you are, have been decent to me, and I want you to know I wouldn’t lie to you. By the way, what are your names? I’d like to know. Brothers, aren’t you?”
“Twins. I’m Jerry Utway, and this is Jake. But what about the necklace?”
Both boys had forgotten that they sat in the wet woods in the dead of night, far from their friends, who might miss them at any moment. They were intent only on hearing the story of this strange man.
“It was about a year ago,” began Burk. “I’d always spent most of my time in these mountains—my father was a hunting guide, and I became one, too, after I went through high school. I had a pretty good job as steward and caretaker of a place down on Canoe Mountain, west of Wallistown. It was a sort of hunting lodge, belonging to a club of sportsmen. I lived in the lodge all year round, and took out parties of deer-hunters and fishermen during the season. Well, at this particular time there was only one man staying at the lodge—a man named Collinge, a banker in the city. He was going out fishing that afternoon by himself, and asked me to take care of an expensive pearl necklace he had brought up with him. His daughter was driving up next day with some friends—it was her birthday, and he was giving her the necklace as a present. A party was planned, and I had to get things ready. As it happened, I had a touch of ’flu at the time—I didn’t say anything about it, as I thought it was just a bit of a cold, but I must have had a high fever that day. I took the necklace. He told me to guard it carefully, as it was quite valuable. That’s all.”
“But what happened?” prompted Jake.
“What happened!” repeated Burk in despair. “That’s the question I’ve been asking myself a hundred times a day, back yonder in the prison.” He shivered. “Mr. Collinge came back that evening and found me lying on my bed, raving with fever. The necklace was nowhere in sight. I couldn’t tell him a thing—I couldn’t remember what I had done with it; I’d been out of my head most of the time. Well, I don’t much blame him for getting angry and thinking I had hidden it, stolen it to sell later. He gave me until morning to produce the necklace or take the consequences of being a thief. When morning came, I was better—but no matter how I hunted all over the place, I couldn’t find the necklace.”