"Yes."
"He doesn't look as if he was sick abed, does he?"
"Sick abed? What sort of a game is this?" and the merchant looked Randy over with much curiosity.
"That boy's father says he is sick in bed. I want to prove that it isn't so."
"What is the game, anyway?"
"He had an accident on the river and he wants damages from a man I work for. It is a put-up job."
"Oh! I've heard of such things before. I know a rascal who cut his foot with an ax and then went down to the railroad and laid the blame on a train. He got five hundred dollars, but, later on, was found out and sent to prison for the deception."
"Well, this isn't exactly like that. Didn't you hear about a sloop running into the Helen Shalley a few days ago?"
"Oh, yes, a friend of mine, a passenger on the boat, told me about it. He said the boy didn't know how to handle the craft."
"Well, that is the boy."