"He couldn't help knowing it."
"The question in my mind is this: what he said to me, as well as what you have told, proves that he understood the whole scheme of my being ransomed. Tozer must have known where I was; he knew that to bring the ransom business to a head would require several days, even with the use of the telegraph; they expected me to stay in the cavern all the time. How long would they have left me there without bringing me anything to eat?"
"They'd never brought you anything."
"Then when the time came to surrender me to my friends I should have been dead."
The cowman nodded his head.
"There ain't no doubt of that."
"And they couldn't have carried out their part of the agreement."
"Which the same they knowed."
"But it seems unreasonable. It would have placed both in peril, from which I cannot see how it was possible for them to escape. If they gave me up after receiving the money they would be safe against punishment. Why, then, should they place themselves in such great danger when they had nothing to gain and all to lose by doing so? That is what I can't understand, and I am sure my brain has become clearer."
It was the same view of the question that had puzzled Jack Dudley, and the two boys listened with interest to the explanation of the veteran.