“If it could be done,” persisted The, “what would you think of it?”
“Oh, it would be a great thing for the Friar,” sez Horace; “but, Promotheus, I don’t like to have you take the risk.”
“It ain’t the risk I’m fussin’ about,” sez The. “Ty was square to me in his own way. The Friar has been square to me also, and I know ’at his way is the best; but at the same time—don’t you think it would be downright snakish for me to go back to Ty, tell him some excuse for my stayin’ away, and then plot again’ him while I’m eatin’ his vittles?”
It didn’t sound good to us when Promotheus came out with it so everlastin’ unpolluted; but he had worked up a sense of honesty since bein’ with Horace, which wouldn’t let him do any pertendin’. Horace didn’t answer, and he went on after waitin’ a minute: “I haven’t any prejudices again’ fightin’ him in the open; but it does go again’ my grain to wear a dog hide when I’m playin’ wolf, and Ty Jones was square to me.”
“Well,” sez Horace, “I haven’t the heart to advise you to do this, Promotheus. We’ll sure be able to find some other way, and as long as it goes again’ your grain the way it does, I don’t want you to do it.”
“Would you think any the less of me if I did?” asked The, his eyes takin’ on a sad, hungry look, like a dog’s eyes get when he’s worried over what his master’ll say about some trick he’s been up to.
“Course I wouldn’t think any less of ya,” sez Horace without hesitatin’; “but hang it, I’m afraid somethin’ ’ll happen to ya.”
“Would the Friar think any the less of me?” sez The.
“If the Friar heard about it, he wouldn’t let ya go,” sez Horace.
“I’ve puzzled more about the Friar ’n about airy other man I ever saw,” sez The, thoughtful. “I wanted to lynch Olaf that time, guilty or not guilty; but the Friar straightened things out by riskin’ his own soul. He hates lynchin’, it goes square again’ his grain; but he made a bet with us to help stretch Olaf if we could prove him guilty; and this has stuck with me. This was a big thing to do, and I’d like to do somethin’ big for the Friar—But I swear it would hurt me to spy on Ty Jones!”