"
"I hope he may not, but---"
"Keep a stout heart, Mrs. Scarlet. Influences are at work to free the
boy. It will not do to permit him to languish in prison. I tell you
Providence is on your side."
Then Mr. Darlington Ruggles passed from the room.
"Strange man," muttered the woman, after he had gone. "He is a
mystery. Sometimes I imagine he is not what he seems, but a detective.
I hope I have given nothing away, for I find it won't do to trust
anybody these days."
In the meantime Professor Darlington Ruggles made his way to another
part of the city, not far from the river, and met a man in a dingy
basement room at the rear of a low doggery.
Strange place for a learned professor, was it not?
"You've kept me waiting awhile, boss."
The speaker was the man we have seen at Madge Scarlet's--Nick Brower
by name.
"I couldn't get away sooner," returned the professor. "How does the
land lay, Nat?"
"In an ugly quarter."
"I feared so myself. The young chap that Dyke Darrel took to Missouri
knows enough to hang you---"
"And you, too, pard; don't forget that," retorted the grizzled villain
grimly.
"I forget nothing," said Mr. Ruggles, giving his plug hat a rub across
his left arm.
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