“It’s all right, my boy,” he said. “Don’t be frightened.”
Ben dimly wondered where he was. The wound in his breast was painful and he felt very weak.
He noticed that Mr. Hodges was standing at the foot of the bed and he surmised that he must have been carried to his house. He closed his eyes and tried to think over the events of the previous night.
“It wasn’t much of a knife,” the doctor said, “or it would have done more damage. When you feel able to talk,” he kindly said to Ben, “you can tell us all about it.”
The patient nodded and closed his eyes again. Everything seemed slipping from him.
“Guess there ain’t much to tell,” Hodges said gruffly. “It’s pretty certain who done it.”
Ben’s senses faintly rallied at this remark.
“Could it be possible,” he thought, “that they did not know who his assailant was?” He instantly surmised that Hodges suspected Mundon. “Syd must have made good his escape before they found me,” he mentally concluded. “What a coward!”
He lay with his eyes closed a great deal of the time and reviewed the situation. Should he expose Syd? It was hard to keep from doing so when he thought of all he had suffered at his hands. He had been such a brazen thief, too, so shameless in his villainy.