"Now, my man, do you want to hang?"
"Hang? me? No, I don't. Who does?"
"Then you'll tell me who stuck a knife into that fellow in Cooper's Spinney."
"Me tell you? What do you mean?"
"You know what I mean, and you know who handled that knife; and it's only by telling me that you'll save your neck from the gallows."
Baker stared with tightened lips and frowning brows. This spruce little gentleman was beyond him altogether.
"Here! you go too fast for me. I don't know who you are, not from Adam. Who might you be?"
"My name's Gilbert--I'm a lawyer--and I'm going to save you from the gallows, if I can."
"A lawyer?" Baker put up a gnarled hand to rasp his stubbly chin. He looked at the other with eyes which trouble had dimmed. "Has she sent you?"
"She? Who?"