“It took me nearly two weeks to get her to admit that she lied,” went on Mr. Baxter. “And I guess she wouldn’t have done it then if I hadn’t offered her a hundred dollars to tell the truth. You see, Horace, it was this way. As my boy Oliver grew up to be a man I realized that she had lied dreadfully about one thing, so that set me to thinking that she must have lied about others. She said he would grow up to be the living image of his father. Well, he didn’t. He’s a hundred per cent better looking than I am or ever was. That’s a fact, ain’t it?”
“Are you talking about the gypsy who told his fortune?” inquired Mr. Gooch, comprehending at last.
“Yes. Queen Marguerite. Mrs. Tobias Spink in private. One of the most interesting queens I’ve ever met, and, by gosh, I’ve met a lot of ’em in my travels. As I was saying, I got it into my head that if she could be wrong about Oliver looking like me she could have been wrong about everything else. So I made up my mind to find her and—”
“So that’s what you’ve been up to, you blamed old idiot!” exclaimed Mr. Gooch. “Sneaking away and leaving everybody to wonder what had become of you. You ought to be cow-hided, Oliver Baxter. All the trouble and anxiety and worry you’ve caused me and your son and everybody else! All the money your son spent looking for you—to say nothing of what I’ve spent myself lately. Why, you old—”
“Keep your shirt on, Horace,” advised Oliver blandly. “Don’t get excited. I just had to do it. I couldn’t stand it any longer. I would have lost my mind long before Oliver was thirty if I had sat around waiting for a year and more to see if he was really going to be hung. Besides, it’s none of your business anyhow. You say Oliver spent a lot of money trying to find me?” He put the question eagerly, wistfully.
“And so did I,” snapped Mr. Gooch. “I’m not saying Oliver spent his own money. He probably—”
“I don’t care whose money he spent,” cried Mr. Baxter joyously. “I’ll pay back all that you spent, so don’t you worry, you derned old skinflint. Every nickel of it.”
“You will?” cried Mr. Gooch. “Is that a promise?”
“Certainly. And my word is as good as my bond,” said Mr. Baxter proudly.
“I’ve always said you were an absolutely honest man, Oliver,” said Mr. Gooch ingratiatingly. “Never knew you to go back on your word. If you say you’ll pay, I know you will.”