Mrs. Crashaw: ‘I should be ashamed of you, Willis, if you accepted anybody’s help.’
Willis, sighing: ‘Well, this is pretty hard on an orphan. Here I come to join a company of friends at the fireside of a burgled brother-in-law, and I find myself in a nest of conspirators.’ Suddenly, after a moment: ‘Oh, I understand. Why, I ought to have seen at once. But no matter—it’s just as well. I’m sure that we shall hear Dr. Lawton leniently, and make allowance for his well-known foible. Roberts is bound by the laws of hospitality, and Mr. Bemis is the father-in-law of his daughter.’
Mrs. Bemis, in serious dismay: ‘Why, Mr. Campbell, what do you mean?’
Willis: ‘Simply that the mystery is solved—the double garotter is discovered. I’m sorry for you, Mrs. Bemis; and no one will wish to deal harshly with your father when he confesses that it was he who robbed Mr. Roberts and Mr. Bemis. All that they ask is to have their watches back. Go on, Doctor! How will that do, Aunt Mary, for a little flyer?’
Mrs. Crashaw: ‘Willis, I declare I never saw anybody like you!’ She embraces him with joyous pride.
Roberts, coming forward anxiously: ‘But, my dear Willis—’
Willis, clapping his hand over his mouth, and leading him back to his place: ‘We can’t let you talk now. I’ve no doubt you’ll be considerate, and all that, but Dr. Lawton has the floor. Go on, Doctor! Free your mind! Don’t be afraid of telling the whole truth! It will be better for you in the end.’ He rubs his hands gleefully, and then thrusting the points of them into his waistcoat pockets, stands beaming triumphantly upon Lawton.
Lawton: ‘Do you think so?’ With well-affected trepidation ‘Well, friends, if I must confess this—this—’
Willis: ‘High-handed outrage. Go on.’
Lawton: ‘I suppose I must. I shall not expect mercy for myself; perhaps you’ll say that, as an old and hardened offender, I don’t deserve it. But I had an accomplice—a young man very respectably connected, and who, whatever his previous life may have been, had managed to keep a good reputation; a young man a little apt to be misled by overweening vanity and the ill-advised flattery of his friends; but I hope that neither of you gentlemen will be hard upon him, but will consider his youth, and perhaps his congenital moral and intellectual deficiencies, even when you find your watches—on Mr. Campbell’s person.’ He leans forward, rubbing his hands, and smiling upon Campbell, ‘How will that do, Mr. Campbell, for a flyer?’