"Is it Sandy Wells, of the sheriff's office?" he asked; but my prisoner remained silent, whereupon I prodded him in the side, whispering as I did so:
"Speak out, man! Do you distrust your own friends?"
"I'm not certain if I have any," he said mournfully, and then so far plucked up courage as to reply in a thin, tremulous voice:
"Aye, sir, I am Sandy Wells."
"We heard that you had been murdered," Master Edwards said, much as if disappointed because such was not the fact.
"I was indeed very near death; but those who call themselves Regulators rescued me from the vile men who accuse me of having worked them harm because of obeying the sheriff's orders."
"Is that the man you declared had been murdered?" General Hamilton shouted, and after some delay Master Edwards replied:
"That is the man."
"Send him forward, lad, and let those brave gentlemen take the fellow without delay to his excellency, who will be in distress of mind until after having assured himself that he is in the land of the living."
Master Edwards wheeled about as if to join his force, and General Hamilton shouted: