“But he must have been alive.”
“Not much. That fall was all of a hundred feet and on the bare rocks. I would have gone down; but it was such a lonely spot I got frightened, and simply ran away as hard as I could. That’s the plain truth.”
And Norton Bixby wiped the cold perspiration from his forehead.
I looked the man in the eyes, and could not help believe that in this particular the fellow spoke the truth.
But in my heart how I wished he had returned and made sure that my father was really dead! There might have been a spark of life remaining, and if so, prompt treatment might have given him back to me.
I bowed my head, and the tears began to well up in my eyes. Norton Bixby saw them, and turned away his head.
Then the jailer appeared.
“A man up-stairs wants to see you at once,” he said to me.
“Who is it?” I asked, drying my eyes.