"Then," said Mr. Fitch, with slight suspicion, "you are in confidential relations with this villain."
"Partly so, but it was forced upon me. I never met him till to-day, and he confided in me because there seemed to be no one else that he could trust."
"Why did he not come himself?"
"Because he thought it would be dangerous."
"Shall you meet him again?"
"Once only, to finish this business. He said you had promised a certain sum on the boy's return, and this I agreed to carry him."
"How much commission are you to receive?" inquired Mr. Fitch.
"Nothing at all," said Jasper. "He handed me five dollars to pay the railroad fare of little Harry and myself to St. Louis. What is left over I shall return to him."
"Then Harry was not concealed in this city?"
"No, sir; but he was at no great distance from it."