“Then you really did steal it?”
“Squire are you alone here—nobody to hear?”
“I am all alone.”
“Are you bound by oath to keep the secrets of your clients?”
“Certainly I am.”
“Well, then, ’twixt you and me, I did have a dab at that honey. There was more than seventy pounds! But you can clear me.”
“How can I?”
“Why, Ned Hazen has agreed to swear that I was with him fishing at Squanicook Pond that night.”
“So, by perjury, you hope to escape punishment. What can you afford to pay a lawyer who will do his best?”
The man took out twenty dollars. It was a great temptation. The young lawyer staggered for a moment—but only for a moment.