“But you keep trying to be.”

“No, I do not. You try to make me angry with you every time we meet.”

“That’s not true. I want to have you do your duty and tell all you know. Father says you ought, as you know who it was.”

“Have you told your father, then?”

“Yes, I told him to-day, and he said you ought to do your duty and speak.”

“Your father said that?”

“Yes: and why don’t you—like a man.”

Dick’s brow grew all corrugated as if Black Care were sitting upon the roof of his head and squeezing the skin down into wrinkles.

“Come, speak out, and don’t be such a miserable coward. Father says you don’t speak because you are afraid that whoever did it may shoot you.”

Dick’s brow grew more puckered than ever.