"Where is my sister?" added Al, in an agony of suspense.
"It's like this, gents," replied the man. "Just before the alarm of fire was given a man came to the stage door, where I happened to be standing at the time. His collar was turned up, and his hat was pulled down, and at first I did not recognize him. 'I want you to do me a favor,' he says. 'What is it?' says I, 'and who are you?' 'Don't you know me?' he asks me. 'No, I don't,' I tells him, 'and I ain't got no time to stand here fooling with you.' You see, I thought maybe he was a stage-door masher, though he didn't look much like one, to tell the truth, for he was dressed in a way that——"
"Never mind all that," interrupted Mr. Wattles again. "Get to the point. The man told you he was Farley?"
"He did, sir."
"Why were you any more willing to talk to him then? Had you ever met him before?"
"Oh, yes."
"By your own admission you knew he was a villain. Why, then, were you willing to do him a favor?"
"He did me a great service once, sir, and I was glad of a chance to repay him."
"Even at the risk of a young girl's life happiness, perhaps her life itself?"
"I did not think it was as serious as all that then, sir. You see, all he asked me was to tell Miss March that a friend bearing important news was waiting just outside the stage door to see her, and that he would not detain her more than a minute. He also told me not to say that it was him if she should ask."