"It's not true what they are saying, Miss Dickson," gasped the woman. "I could be upon my Bible oath that he never did it. Jim ain't of that wicked sort, he'd not harm a fly."
"But there are such things as accidents, you know, Mrs. Sanders," promptly answered Nora, who had no doubt as to her course now. "It's certain that he was in the rick-yard with a lighted torch; and boys, as everyone knows, are the most careless animals on earth. I suppose you have Jim in hiding?"
"I haven't set eyes on Jim since night fell," the woman answered.
"Look here, Mrs. Sanders, you had better avow the truth to me. I have come as a friend to see what can be done for Jim; and I can tell you that I would rather keep him in hiding—or put him into hiding, for the matter of that—than betray him to the police, and say, 'You'll find Jim Sanders so-and-so.' Tell me the whole truth, and I'll stand Jim's friend. He has been about our place from a little chap in petticoats, when he was put to hurrish the crows, and it's not likely we should want to harm him."
Her words reassured the woman, but she persisted in her denial. "I declare to goodness, ma'am, that I know nothing of him," she said, pushing back her untidy hair. "He come in here after he left work, and tidied hisself a bit, and went off with one of them puppies of his; and he has never been back since."
"Yes," said Nora. "He took the puppy to the Hold, and was showing it to Bridget when the fire broke out—that's the tale that's told to me. But Jim had a torch, they say; and torches are dangerous things in rick-yards——"
"Jim's a fool!" was the complimentary interruption of Jim's mother. "His head's running wild over that flighty Bridget, as ain't worth her salt. I asked him what he was bringing on that puppy for, and he said for Bridget—and I told him he was a simpleton for his pains. And now this has come of it!"
"How did you hear of Jim's being connected with the fire?"
"I have had a dozen past here, opening their mouths," resentfully spoke the woman. "Some of 'em said Mr. Rupert was mixed up in it, and the police were after him as well as after Jim."
"It is true that Mr. Rupert is said to be mixed up in it," said Nora, speaking with a purpose. "And he is taken into custody."