"Are you alive?" asked Mr. Tarbox, cautiously, eying him askance.
"Alive? I rather think I am. Just give me your hand."
The Yankee mechanically extended his hand, and Frank gave him a grip which convinced him that he was flesh and blood.
"But I thought you were dead!"
"You see I am not."
"I saw the cliff where you tumbled off, and broke your neck."
"I got it mended again," said Frank, laughing. "But you say you saw the cliff. Have you been to Switzerland?"
"Yes. I mistrusted something was goin' to happen to you."
"How could you mistrust? What led to your suspicions?"
"A letter that your step-father wrote to that skunk, Sharpley, in which he talks about your meeting with an accident."