“Not at all,” said Whalen.
Here was an anti-climax. It left Tom with eyes glistening. Whalen just leaned against the tree puffing his pipe. But Tom rose to the occasion.
“Well then, I’ve got another one for you,” he said. “I’ve got two more shots. I found the murderer of Henry Merrick and I took his confession to the police. They’ll have to squash the indictment against you, or quash it, or whatever they do. The man is dead. It was—you knew him—it was Ganley.”
Now Whalen looked straight into Tom’s eyes with inquiry, incredulity.
“And I’ll tell you something else,” said Tom. “You didn’t know—when you saved my life you didn’t know, did you, that I’m the miracle man? You didn’t think about me—listen—you didn’t think about me being a little old boy scout, did you? Something for a service—good turns. Oh, I’m the little Santa Claus all right. I’ve got your grandfather down at Temple Camp—waiting to be called for. All you have to do is to go and claim him. He’s having the time of his life, thank you.” He was smiling all over, his eyes brimming. “You—you think you know so much about me—you think you’re smart—you old grouch—you didn’t know that, did you? Go on, say something sarcastic now. All I wanted was to stay here long enough to put it all over you. Go ahead, say something sarcastic—you—”
He could say no more, he was all but hysterical with joy. “I could—gee, I could never get you to sit down and talk with me—I—I’m all right, sit down and I’ll tell you the whole thing—Ganley—he came back, he was dead on a boat in the river, he wrote out everything.”
“Poor Joey,” said Whalen.
“Sit down,” said Tom, “and I’ll tell you the whole thing. I won’t tell you unless you sit down. I bet you don’t believe me, do you? Knew I wouldn’t tell. You took awful chances, let me tell you that.”
“So, Tommy?”
Whalen sat down on the log, seeming bewildered, skeptical, keenly curious. Tom’s first shot had missed. But the other two had struck the lonely, taciturn man. His eyes were pathetic with suspense. He seemed even still to harbor a kindly doubt about crediting this exuberant boy.