“I’ve been wrong about all this,” Jeek went on, humility in every tone as he spoke. “If you’ll let us go and won’t bother us I’ll sign that paper. What you got on it?”
“On what?” Frank asked the man.
“Oh, gee, I ain’t no fool. On that sheet you wrote for me to sign before you wrote the one for Snadder,” and there was a slight smile on his face as he spoke.
Frank carefully pulled the paper from his kit again, where he had put it with the second one, reading it carefully to Jeek.
Not quite the same as the one previously read, it said that Jeek agreed the boys had shot his dog under circumstances which were unavoidable and that the boys owed him nothing for the animal; that Jeek had stolen and had bribed Snadder and Blinky to steal the food and other goods from the Parsons’ house; that he and his two companions would leave this section of the country immediately and would not return during the present season under the penalty of this confession being used against them.
“You can use that against me all my life,” muttered Jeek when the reading was completed.
“Sure!” Frank agreed. “That’s just what I propose to do. I am going to give this to my father to keep, and if ever you cause any of us any trouble I am going to use it as a confession of having stolen goods from Mrs. Parsons.”
Jeek studied over the document for a while, the boys quietly waiting for him to reach a decision. It came at last.
“All right, I’ll sign. I guess these other fellows will, too. Do we get off right away?” he asked.
Frank agreed they could all leave at once, provided they started immediately for Todds and provided all three of them signed.