"Please don't! Oh, don't, Mr. Simmons! I will tell you all I know about it, and do anything—work all my life for you if you will only let me go."
"Let you go, after this affair? Yes, I will let you go—go to the sheriff! Come along, I say."
"It's all Matthew's fault—wanting to lick Fred Worthington."
"Do you expect me to believe such a story? It's a fine yarn to try and clear yourself when you are the one that almost broke my leg with your club."
"He told me to hit you——"
"Told you to hit me?"
"I mean to hit Fred, for he was waiting for him—said he wanted to get square with him."
"Then, according to your own story, you hired yourself to Matthew De Vere to come here and waylay an innocent boy, and beat him with clubs, and perhaps murder him."
"Yes; but I didn't think of it in that way or I wouldn't have come. Matthew hired me."
"So much the worse, if you would sell yourself to do such a wicked deed. You are as guilty as he, and it is my duty to hand you over to the State."