"Louis Leblanc," Trove answered with surprise.
"He has been found," said the other.
"Then I shall be able to prove my point. He came to his home drunk
one night and began to bully his family. I was boarding with the
Misses Tower and went over and took the shot and iron from his
hands and got him into bed. The woman begged me to bring them
away."
"He declares that he never saw the shot or the iron."
Darrel rose and drew his chair a bit nearer.
"Very well, but there's the wife," said he, quickly.
"She will swear, too, that she never saw them."
"And how about the daughter?" Trove inquired.
"Run away and nowhere to be found," was the answer of the other
young man. "I've told you bad news enough, but there's more, and
you ought to know it all. Louis Leblanc is in Quebec, and he says
that a clock tinker lent him money with which to leave the States."
"It was I, an' God bring him to repentance--the poor beggar!" said
Darrel. "He agreed to repay me within a fortnight an' was in sore
distress, but he ran away, an' I got no word o' him."
"Well, the inference is, that you, being a friend of the accused,
were trying to help him."
"I'm caught in a web," said Trove, leaning forward, his head upon
his hands, "and Leblanc's wife is the spider.
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