"This is all I want," said our hero to the tramp. "You may go now."
"Don't want no more o' me?" asked Tom Nolan.
"Nothing whatever."
"Say, ain't this confession good fer a quarter?"
"I'll give you a quarter if you'll promise not to spend it for drink."
"I'll promise," said the tramp, and Nat handed him twenty-five cents. Tom Nolan thanked him, and shuffled off; and that was the last our hero saw or heard of him.
"I'm sorry I lost so much time," said Nat to his employer. "But I wanted to square myself with Uncle Abner if I could."
"I don't blame you, Nat. I have no doubt it is a great worry off your mind."
"It is. Now, Uncle Abner will know I told him the plain truth."
That night Nat wrote Abner Balberry a long letter, telling of his meeting with the tramp. He enclosed the signed confession, and he had the letter registered, so that it might not get lost in the mails. A few days later came a reply, in which Nat's uncle said he remembered seeing the tramp around on the day of the fire, and stating that he was very sorry that he had ever thought his nephew guilty.