“True, but all might not take that view of it. I don’t know why I should speak so confidentially to you, lad, but if I ever regret my line of life it is when I look at him. I wouldn’t like to have his future marred by his association with me. I wouldn’t like people to turn from him because he was an outlaw’s son.”
“I hope you will forgive my boldness,” said Ernest, “but don’t you think you will ever change your mode of life?”
“It is too late; I am too well known. Yet who knows?” he said after a pause.
At nine o’clock Juba entered the room.
“Has John returned?” asked the outlaw.
“No, massa.”
A shade of anxiety overspread the outlaw’s face.
“He should have been here before this,” he said. Then looking at Ernest he said: “I am going out a while. Lie down on the bed with Frank and if he wakes up undress him.”
“Yes, sir.”
An hour later Frank and Ernest were sleeping peacefully side by side.