They entered a little office connected with a weighing-machine, which happened to be vacant at the time.
“Now, mind,” said Frank Oldfield, when they were shut in alone, “I’ll have a straightforward statement, without any prevarication, or I give you over at once into custody. If you can’t clear yourself, and I don’t see how you possibly can, there’s the jail before you, the only place you’re fit for.”
“I’m quite aware, sir, that appearances are against me,” said the other meekly; “but, Mr Frank, you’ll not refuse to listen to your old servant, that’s devoted himself so faithfully to you and yours in England, and came across the seas just because he couldn’t abide to be separated from you any longer.”
“Come, sir,” said Frank Oldfield sternly; “I’m not to be talked over in this way. You weren’t so very anxious to avoid separation when you left me on a sick-bed, and made off with my fifty pounds. Come, sir, give me your explanation, as you call it, at once, and without any nonsense about your faithfulness to me and mine, or I shall put the prison-door between you and me, and that’ll be a separation you’ll not get over so easily.”
“But you haven’t heard me, sir; you haven’t heard all. You don’t know what I have to say in attenuation of my offence.”
“I mayn’t have heard all, Juniper, but I’ve both heard and seen about you a great deal more than I like; so let me warn you again, I must have a plain, straightforward statement. What have you done with my money, and how can you justify your abandoning me in my illness?”
“Ah! Mr Frank, you little know me—you little know what’s in my heart. You little know how every pulse reverberates with deepest affection. But I’ll go to the point, sir, at once;” for Frank began to exhibit signs of impatience. “When I saw you was getting ill, sir, and not able to care for yourself, I says to myself, ‘I must ride off for a doctor. But what’ll my poor master do while I’m gone? he’s no power to help himself, and if any stranger should come in—and who knows it mightn’t be one of these bushrangers!—he’d be sure to take advantage of him and steal his money while he lay helpless.’ So says I to myself again, ‘I think I’ll risk it. I know it’ll look awkward,’—but there’s nothing like a good conscience, when you know you haven’t meant to do wrong. ‘I’ll just take the money with me, and keep it safe for him till I get back.’ Nay, please, Mr Frank, hear me out. Well, I took the fifty pounds, I don’t deny it; it may have been an error in judgment, but we’re all of us infallible beings. I rode off to find a doctor, but no doctor could I find; but I met a young bushman, who said he’d get some one to look after you till I could return.”
“And why didn’t you return; and how came you to want two horses to fetch the doctor with?” asked Frank impatiently.
“Ah! dear sir, don’t be severe with me till you know all. I took both the horses for the same reason that I took the money. I was afraid a stranger might come while I was away, perhaps a bushranger, and the very first thing he’d have laid his hands on would have been the horse.”
“Well; and why didn’t you come back?”