"Why can't I? There's no Dr. Redmond to take your part now. Why can't I, I'd like to know?"
"Because I haven't got it."
"What!" exclaimed Fogson. "Do you mean to say you've spent it already? If you have——"
"No, I haven't spent it, but I have given it to Dr. Redmond to keep for me."
Fogson showed in his face his intense disappointment. He expected to get the money without fail, and lo! the victory was snatched from him.
He glared at Jed, and seemed about to pounce upon him, but he thought better of it.
"You'll go and get the money in the morning," he said. "You and Dr. Redmond are engaged in a conspiracy against the town and the laws, and I am not sure but I could have you both arrested. Mind, if that money is not handed to me to-morrow you will get a thrashing. Now go to bed!"
Jed was not sorry to avail himself of this permission. He had not enjoyed the interview with Mr. Fogson, and he felt tired and in need of rest. Accordingly he went up stairs to the attic, where there was a cot bed under the bare rafters, which he usually occupied. There had been another boy, three months before, who had shared the desolate room with him, but he had been bound out to a farmer, and now Jed was the sole occupant.
Tired as he was, he did not go to sleep immediately. He undressed himself slowly in the obscurity, for he was not allowed a lamp, and made a movement to get into bed.