"Thought of it! Of course I thought of it. But I had no idea whatever of
being caught, with old McFarlane laid up and the two boys away, it did
seem about the safest job yet."

There was a pause, for Geoffrey evidently had no intention of even
arguing the matter, and presently McVay continued:

"Now you know you would feel badly to-morrow morning if anything went
wrong with her, and you knew you could have helped it!"

"Helped it!" said Geoffrey. "What do you mean? Let you loose on the
county for the sake of a story no sane man would believe?"

"Well," returned McVay judicially, "perhaps you could not do that, but,"
he added brightly, "you could go yourself."

"Yes," said Geoffrey, "I _could_--"

"Then I think you ought to be getting along."

"Upon my word, McVay," said Holland, "you are something of a humorist,
aren't you?"

McVay again looked puzzled, but rose to the occasion.

"Oh, hardly that," he said. "Every now and then I have a way of putting
things,--a way of my own. I find often I am able to amuse people, but if
you are cheerful yourself, you make other people so. I was just thinking
that it must be a great thing for men who have been in prison for years