“Good heavens! You don’t mean it?” ejaculated Puffer, with well counterfeited horror. “I can’t believe it. And you prevented it?”
“Yes, I did. But for me, the boy would have been drowned.”
“My honest friend,” said the professor effusively, “you have done me a great—the greatest service. You have saved me from a terrible crime. Let me shake your hand!”
“No,” said Jack, drawing back, “I won’t take the hand of a murderer—leastways, of one who attempted to murder.”
“Don’t say that, my worthy friend. You hurt my feelings. At least, let me show my appreciation of your great service. Here’s a gold piece——”
“Keep your money; I don’t want it,” said Jack scornfully.
“At any rate,” went on the professor, crestfallen, “let me hope that you will keep this unfortunate affair to yourself. It would do no good to reveal it, and it would put me in a false position.”
“I won’t promise anything,” said Jack suspiciously. “Only, if you try to hurt a hair of this boy’s head again I’ll have you in jail as soon as we reach port.”
“Oh, how you mistake me!” murmured the professor sadly. “Yet I cannot blame you. It certainly did look suspicious.”
“I should say it did.”