“Yes, I did. But I didn’t make any fire. Maybe you had a quarrel with him yourself.”
“Hold on there, Bangs! None of that!” cried Bud Haddon sternly.
“Well, you wouldn’t be too good to set the fire,” added Brassy, with sudden recklessness. “Not after the way you are acting out here, running away with those horses, and after the way you acted at Colby Hall, trying to rob every room in the place!”
“Wait a minute now! Wait a minute!” returned the man sarcastically. “Who was it lent me his uniform and who was it that told me just what rooms to go into? Answer me those questions, will you?”
“You wouldn’t have gotten hold of the uniform and you wouldn’t have gotten any information if you hadn’t threatened me in all sorts of ways,” answered Brassy, somewhat lamely. “I wish now that I’d never had anything to do with you!”
“Well, you keep your tongue between your teeth, or else you’ll get yourself in the hottest kind of water!” burst out Bud Haddon. “Don’t you know that they can send you to prison for ten years for what you did?”
“I haven’t said anything to anybody as yet,” answered Brassy hastily.
“Well, you see that you don’t!”
“But I didn’t set Calder’s barn on fire—really I didn’t!” pleaded the boy. “I don’t see why you won’t believe me.”
“I’m willing to let that matter drop if only you’ll keep a civil tongue in your head and mind what you’re doing,” returned Bud Haddon. “And don’t forget—I want at least a hundred dollars more just as soon as you can lay your hands on it.”