"Not unless Jim Yeager is a liar."
"Oh, Jim! No use going into that. He's your friend. I don't know why, but he is."
"And you're Brill Healy's. That's why you won't tell that he was carrying your sister's knife the day I saw you and him first."
The boy flashed toward the bed startled eyes. Keller was looking at him very steadily.
"Who says he had Phyl's knife?"
"Hadn't he?"
"What difference does that make, anyhow? I hear you're telling that you found the knife beside the dead cow. You ain't got any proof, have you?" challenged young Sanderson angrily.
"No proof," admitted the other.
"Well, then." Phil chewed on it for a moment before he broke out again: "I reckon you cayn't talk away the facts, Mr. Keller. We caught you in the act—caught you good. By your own story, you're the man we came on. What's the use of you trying to lay it on me and Brill?"
"Am I trying to lay it on you?"