"Shucks, 'Lish. You don't get round me that way," the station agent laughed.
"I ain't attemptin' to get round you. I'm askin' you seriously as sheriff of the town of Wilton."
"Are you in earnest? What do you want to know for?" Artie asked.
"Never you mind. That's my business. I've a right to the information."
"Oh, that's different. Still, I reckon it's as well I shouldn't repeat what Heath said word for word. 'Twouldn't interest you, anyhow. The wire was just sent to a friend. The part that astonished me was its beginnin'. It ran somethin' like this:
"'Safe on Cape with my lady. Shall return with her later.'"
Simultaneously Elisha shot up from the box on which he was sitting and Eleazer sprang from the keg of nails.
"What interested me," droned on Artie, "was who this lady could be. Heath, apparently, is a married man. What business has he taggin' after some Wilton woman an' totin' her back to New York with him when he goes?"
"He ain't got no business doin' it," Eleazer shouted. "He's a blackguard—that's what he is! But don't you worry, Artie. He ain't goin' to put no such scurvy trick over on any Wilton woman. Me an' 'Lish'll see to that. We're onto him an' his doin's, we are. How much more tinkerin' have you got to do on them trinkets, Pete? The sheriff an' me is in a hurry to get home."