'S'pose it ain't,' replied Harry with a grin; 'but they all seem to come
your way somehow. Look here--it can't matter now--tell me how you came to
be in the Stream drive that night?'

Dick kicked up a tuft of grass, bored one heel into the soft turf, and
answered nothing.

'Come on, old man, I won't turn dog.'

'I'm goin' to tell it to Detective Downy first. 'Twasn't nothin' much
anyhow. I jes' went down.'

Dick would say nothing more. He found himself on the side of the law for
the first time, and felt he owed a duty to Downy, whom he regarded as
almost as great a man as Sam Sagacious. Downy had come to his rescue in
an hour of dire peril, Downy had trusted him and taken him into his
confidence to some extent, and he was determined to do the fair and
square thing by the detective, at least so far as he could do so without
interfering with his sacred obligation to handsome, unhappy Christina
Shine.

The detective returned to the township in the afternoon to prosecute the
search for Ephraim, of whom nothing had yet been heard. In the presence
of his mother and Mrs. Hardy and Harry, Dick faced the officer to tell
his story; but he found it hard to begin.

'Well, my lad,' said Downy, 'you're going to tell all you know?'

Dick nodded, abashed by his new importance.