But my petrification was only temporary. I was beginning to understand, and to be more alarmed than ever.
“What are you doing here in Denboro?” I demanded.
Captain Jed answered for him. “He's here because I telegraphed for him yesterday,” he said. “I wired him to come straight home and take charge of the bank. I had fired you, like the dumb fool I was, and I wanted him to take command. He got here on the mornin' train.”
I remembered what Phin Cahoon had said about the telegram and the captain's making him promise not to mention the name of the person to whom it was sent. It was George, of course. If I had been in a normal state of mind when Phin told me I should have guessed as much.
Taylor took up the conversation. “Yes, I got here,” he said. “And when I got here—or a little before—” with a glance at the captain—“I found out what had been going on since I left. You old chump, Ros Paine! What did you do it for?”
I looked at him and then at his companion. What I saw there confirmed my worst suspicions.
“George,” I said, “if you have told him you must be crazy.”
“I was crazy not to tell him before. I was crazy not to guess what you had been up to. But I didn't suppose anybody would be crazy enough to do what you did, Ros. I didn't imagine for a minute that you would be crazy enough to throw away your job and get yourself into the trouble you knew was sure to come, just to help me. To help ME, by the Lord! Ros! Ros! what can I say to you!”
“You've said enough, and more than enough,” I answered, bitterly. “I did what I did so that you might keep your secret. I did it to help you and Nellie. And if you had kept still no one need ever have known, no one but you and I, George. And now you—”
“Shut up, Ros!” he interrupted. “Shut up, I tell you! Why, confound you, what do you think I am? Do you suppose I would let you sacrifice yourself like that, while I set still and saw you kicked out of town? What do you think I am?”