"Come now, Master Ahearn, you're a bright-looking lad, and no doubt you think a good deal. Have you been thinking much about this wonderful black bag?"
Terry started, and the colour deepened on his already flushed cheeks. Had he been thinking about it? What else indeed had occupied his thoughts since first he heard of the robbery?
His keen eye observing the boy's confusion, Mr. Morton, who as a matter of fact had intended simply to play with him for a few minutes while he collected his own thoughts, for the case seemed going hard against his client, began to suspect that possibly the extent of Terry's knowledge had not yet appeared; so, changing his manner from one of good-humoured raillery to penetrating scrutiny, he put the question straight to him,—
"See here, Master Ahearn, don't you know more about this matter than you have yet told us?" Then raising his voice to a tone of command, he pointed his long finger at him like the barrel of a revolver, as he cried, "Out with it now. Tell the court everything you know, or—" He did not finish the sentence, believing it would be more effective to leave the consequences to be imagined.
The supreme crisis in Terry's life had come, and he had only an instant in which to make his decision. On the one side was duty to the truth and to the accused man; on the other, fear for his father and for himself, for he did not know but what his concealment of his father having the gold would bring down punishment on his own shoulders.
To get out of the difficulty he had only to disclaim any further knowledge, and who could gainsay him? Glancing up for a moment at the magistrate, his eyes went past him to Mr. Drummond, who sat at his left. There was a look of deep concern on the merchant's face that touched Terry to the heart, and instantly his decision was made. In a voice scarcely audible he murmured,—
"Yes, sir, I do know something more."
Mr. Morton's face suddenly brightened. Here perchance was something that might help his client.
"Ah! ha!" he exclaimed, "I thought you did. Come, then, let us have it. We're all waiting upon you."
In trembling tones and with many interruptions, Terry, helped out by the lawyer's questions, related all that transpired the night his father brought home the gold. His story produced a profound sensation. Although Black Mike had been placed under surveillance, it was without result; but now, through his son's evidence, his complicity in the crime seemed on the verge of being established.