But the young man held down his head, and made no reply. Abner studied him for a few minutes in silence.
"Did somebody put ye up to that job?" he presently enquired. "Don't be afraid to tell me. But if ye don't, I'll be as tender with ye as a cat with a mouse. Somebody set ye on, didn't he?"
"Yes," the chauffeur finally blurted out.
"Ah, I thought so. We're gittin' on nicely now with our little teeter game, you at one end, me at the other, an' someone in the middle. Now, who was that someone?"
"It was Lawyer Rackshaw; that's who it was."
"H'm, I guessed as much. I s'pose he paid ye fer the job?"
"Yes; money and whiskey."
"Ho, ho, money an' whiskey, eh? Well, I declare! An' all fer the sake of givin' the Queen of Sheby a joy-ride. He was sartinly kind. I wish he'd been along too."
"So do I, the mean devil. He got me into the fix, and he'll snap his fingers at me now."
"Will he?"