"I am heartily glad that you are back," he said then to my uncle. "You will look after them, Enos, until I am free."
"Indeed I will," replied Captain Enos, heartily. "But you must listen to Roger. He has a long story to tell."
"Then tell it. I am dying to hear news from home." We sat down, and I told my story. Perhaps the deputy ought not to have allowed me to say all I did, but he pretended not to hear.
My father listened with keen attention to every word, and as I went on, his eyes grew brighter and brighter.
"Roger, my faithful boy, you almost make me hope for freedom," he cried. "Oh, how I long to be set right before the world!"
"God make it so," put in my uncle, solemnly. "To suffer unjustly is terrible."
Then I told of my interview with Mr. Woodward in his library and of Holtzmann.
"Holtzmann was one of the principal witnesses against me," said my father. "So was Nicholas Weaver, who managed the Brooklyn business for Holland & Mack. Who John Stumpy can be I do not know. Perhaps I would if I saw him face to face. There was another man—he was quite bald, with a red blotch on the front of his hand—who was brought forward by Woodward to prove that he had nothing to do with the presentation of the forged checks and notes, but what his name was I have forgotten."
"This can't be the man, for he has a heavy head of hair," I replied. "But I am sure Stumpy is not his true name."
"Probably not. Well, Roger, do your best, not only for me but for Katie's sake and your own."