“Hello, Tom,” she said quietly.
The young man started as if he had seen a ghost. But he managed to stammer a reply. “Hello, Miss Gay,” he said.
All three of the plainclothes men stepped forward in amazement. “You found her, Gay?” they demanded of Mary Louise’s father.
“No,” answered Mr. Gay. “To be frank, I didn’t. Two of her young friends from Riverside did. She was confined in an insane asylum about twenty miles from Shady Nook, under the name of Rebecca Adams!”
All of Tom’s pretence fell away from him at this announcement. He knew his game was up. His limbs grew weak; he groveled at the men’s feet.
“Don’t send me to the chair!” he cried. “I didn’t harm her. She’s all right, ain’t she?”
“We’ll let the judge and the jury decide that,” replied Mr. Gay. “Now, suppose you sit down there and tell us the truth, Adams. You might as well, for we know most of it already!”
The young man crawled into a seat, but he made no attempt to tell his story.
“We know that you burned three houses here at Shady Nook,” said Mr. Gay. “We know, too, that you did it because you were bribed by Frazier. Didn’t he pay you a certain sum of money to start those fires?”
“Yes, he did,” acknowledged Tom. “He gave me five hundred dollars.”