“I don’t think you will do it, Squire Turner,” said Harry, who did not show a trace of alarm.
“Why not?”
“Because I have told the truth, and you know it,” said our hero, “and if I told it outside, people might believe it.”
“What would your word weigh against mine?” said the squire, but his tone was more confident than his feeling.
“I never told a lie, as everybody in the village will testify,” said Harry, proudly. “Of course it is an object for you to deny it.”
The squire began to see that the overbearing policy was not exactly the one to pursue in this case. Harry was not to be frightened easily, and this he realized. Besides, there were other reasons why he did not wish to fall out with our hero. Accordingly he thought proper to change his tone.
“My young friend,” he said, with a very significant change of tone and manner, “you are certainly under a very strange delusion. I should be angry, but I am rather disposed to be amused. You would only be laughed at if you should spread abroad such a ridiculous tale.”
“It’s true,” persisted Harry.
“Consider a moment,” said Squire Turner, with commendable patience, “the nature of your charge. It is rather absurd that I should set fire to my own building,—isn’t it, now? What possible object could I have in so doing?”
“The insurance,” briefly answered Harry.