“No, I ain't seen 'im since he went out to the P'int. What's the matter, ain't he around?”
“No, he hasn't been seen. Look him up, will you? Ask the boys, and look around the yards a bit.”
“Here he is now.”
Craig and the Manager turned and saw, sure enough, George, leading, with the assistance of a local policeman, a villainous-looking tramp. George himself looked almost as disreputable as the tramp, and the policeman had evidently not been treading paths of ease.
“Here's the man that done it, Mr. Halloran,” said George excitedly. “The copper said he didn't mind bringing him here so's you could see him before he gets run in. He won't say nothing, though.”
Halloran soon drew out George's story, but the tramp was silent, beyond claiming stoutly that he had been smoking and had fallen asleep, only to awake and find the flames starting up. There was nothing to do but to turn him over to the law for the present. And at last, as the hour crept on toward two o'clock in the morning, Halloran and Crosman, after sending a reassuring message to the Higginsons, left the yards together for home and bed.
CHAPTER V—The Meeting
One afternoon young Corrigan appeared at the office. “I wish you would repeat,” he said, when the civilities had been exchanged, “what you said to me a little while back.”