“You are mistaken. I was on watch behind the stone wall just opposite. If you want proof, I can repeat some of the conversation that passed between you and Mr. Gibbon.”
Without waiting for the request, Carl rehearsed some of the talk already recorded in a previous chapter.
Phil Stark began to see that things were getting serious for him, but he was game to the last.
“I deny it,” he said, in a loud voice.
“Do you also deny it, Mr. Gibbon?” asked Mr. Jennings.
“No, sir; I admit it,” replied Gibbon, with a triumphant glance at his foiled confederate.
“This is a conspiracy against an innocent man,” said Stark, scowling. “You want to screen your bookkeeper, if possible. No one has ever before charged me with crime.”
“Then how does it happen, Mr. Stark, that you were confined at the Joliet penitentiary for a term of years?”
“Did he tell you this?” snarled Stark, pointing to Gibbon.
“No.”