situation in as few words as possible.

"But Lawrence ought to have told me!" Featherstone exclaimed.

"I don't know that it would have been of much use. You see, Lawrence
meant to put Daly off the track, and if he failed in this, to fight.
When I heard of it, I quite agreed."

"But he can't fight," Featherstone objected in a strained voice. "I'd
have urged him to do so, if it had been possible. We're not cowards."

"Why is it impossible?"

"Don't you know?" Featherstone asked with some surprise.

"I know my partner's in trouble; that's all."

Featherstone hesitated, as if he wanted to take the other into his
confidence, but shrank from doing so. Then he said with forced
quietness: "If this rogue knows as much as I suspect, he can get my son
arrested."

"On a serious charge? I don't ask what it is."

"It would mean a long imprisonment, to say nothing of the humiliation,"
Featherstone answered brokenly, and was silent for a minute with the
firelight on his tense face. Then he went on with an effort: "I must
tell you what I can. Lawrence in a desperate moment injured, I had
better call it robbed, a relative of ours. The boy had got into
difficulties, but hitherto, although he had been a fool, there was a