“I’ll go, then, and let you think about it, so you will have a good story to tell. Good night, Pearson.”
“So Pat has weakened! I’ll see how he talks in the morning. I feel certain that to-morrow the officials will take steps to bring Pearson to trial, and I know that with what proof we have—and he has also pleaded guilty in the presence of the officials themselves—he will be sentenced for a number of years. I must now return to the office. I think Pat is out of sight. The crisis will come to-morrow.”
“Well, me friend is mad because I do not help him out of his trouble and help meself into trouble. I wonder where I heard that voice. I’m glad I heard it when I did, and not after I did the dirty work.”
“My boy, I was following you all the time, and would not have allowed you to commit the crime.”
“What do I hear? Another voice, or is it the same? Well, me friend, I am a brave Irishman, and just as long as you want to talk to me you may do so. I’ll sit here the rest of the night, and I won’t have long to wait. It’s nearly morning now. But I would of lost manny a night’s sleep, perhaps, if you had not of told me. Whoever you are—I don’t know.”
“And I am not going to tell you, now.”
“I heard the words: ‘I am not going to tell you, now.’ I must be after getting out of this, for I’m hearing things, I am. I wonder if that strange voice has returned. I thought they—whoever it was, or whatever it was—had gone, never to return, but I do belave they have come back.”
“I think Pat will be around soon, and I will pretend that I have had a restless night, and that I will not go to bed at this late hour,” thought the superintendent. “He will be thinking this over and will not get it off from his mind. I shall be anxious, for I have been worried very much in the last few weeks. Yes, here he comes.
“Good morning, Pat.”
“I’m not feeling anny too good, officer.”