"Do you know anything 'bout it? Who the poor wretches was?—when 'twas done?—how they came to do it?—and who done it?" asked Dingle, excitedly.
"I war on that boat, and the only one who saved his hair."
"The only one, Jim?"
"The only one; and when I got clean off, I jist clapped my hand on my head to see ef my hair was thar still, fur I had strong doubts of it. I was the only one! I took a long jump and a dive fur it."
"How was it, when you was on, that they come in for one of the all-fired decoys?"
"I couldn't hender them;" and Peterson proceeded to give, in a few words, what is already known to the reader.
"Let me ax you one thing," said Dingle, when he had finished. "Do you know whether that renegade McGable had anything to do with this business?"
"He was the decoy himself; but a feller come on board up at the Kanawha who got the poor fools to run into shore."
"Was he a short, squashy-looking imp?"
"He war exactly so."