“And what if I won’t do it?” said I. “What does it matter to me if the rascal swings or no?”
“Keep cool, doc,” returned Stagers. “I’m only agent in this here business. My principal, that’s File, he says: ‘Tell Sanderaft to find some way to get me clear. Once out, I give him ten thousand dollars. If he don’t turn up something that will suit, I’ll blow about that coroner business and Lou Wilson, and break him up generally.’”
“You don’t mean,” said I, in a cold sweat—“you don’t mean that, if I can’t do this impossible thing, he will inform on me?”
“Just so,” returned Stagers. “Got a cigar, doc?”
I only half heard him. What a frightful position! I had been leading a happy and an increasingly profitable life—no scrapes and no dangers; and here, on a sudden, I had presented to me the alternative of saving a wretch from the gallows or of spending unlimited years in a State penitentiary. As for the money, it became as dead leaves for this once only in my life. My brain seemed to be spinning round. I grew weak all over.
“Cheer up a little,” said Stagers. “Take a nip of whisky. Things ain’t at the worst, by a good bit. You just get ready, and we’ll start by the morning train. Guess you’ll try out something smart enough as we travel along. Ain’t got a heap of time to lose.”
I was silent. A great anguish had me in its grip. I might squirm as I would, it was all in vain. Hideous plans rose to my mind, born of this agony of terror. I might murder Stagers, but what good would that do? As to File, he was safe from my hand. At last I became too confused to think any longer. “When do we leave?” I said feebly.
“At six to-morrow,” he returned.
How I was watched and guarded, and how hurried over a thousand miles of rail to my fate, little concerns us now. I find it dreadful to recall it to memory. Above all, an aching eagerness for revenge upon the man who had caused me these sufferings was uppermost in my mind. Could I not fool the wretch and save myself? Of a sudden an idea came into my consciousness. Then it grew and formed itself, became possible, probable, seemed to me sure. “Ah,” said I, “Stagers, give me something to eat and drink.” I had not tasted food for two days.
Within a day or two after my arrival, I was enabled to see File in his cell, on the plea of being a clergyman from his native place.