“I never done anything like that!” cried
Peter wildly. “I didn’t even know
for sure.”
“Tell that to the jury!” sneered Guffey.
“Why, they’ve even been to that Shoemaker
Smithers, and they’ll put his wife on the stand
to prove you a sneak thief, and tell how she kicked
you out. And all because you couldn’t hold
your mouth as I told you to!”
Peter burst into tears. He fell down on his knees,
pleading that he hadn’t meant any harm; he hadn’t
had any idea that he was not supposed to talk about
his past life; he hadn’t realized what a witness
was, or what he was supposed to do. All he had
been told was to keep quiet about the Goober case,
and he had kept quiet. So Peter sobbed and pleaded—but
in vain. Guffey ordered him back to the hole,
declaring his intention to prove that Peter was the
one who had thrown the bomb, and that Peter, instead
of Jim Goober, had been the head and front of the
conspiracy. Hadn’t Peter signed a confession
that he had helped to make the bomb?
Again Peter did not know how long he lay shivering
in the black dungeon. He only knew that they
brought him bread and water three times, before Guffey
came again and summoned him forth. Peter now
sat huddled into a chair, twisting his trembling hands
together, while the chief detective of the Traction
Trust explained to him his new program. Peter
was permanently ruined as a witness in the case.
The labor conspirators had raised huge sums for their
defense; they had all the labor unions of the city,
and in fact of the entire country behind them, and
they were hiring spies and informers, and trying to
find out all they could about the prosecution, the
evidence it had collected and the moves it was preparing.
Guffey did not say that he had been afraid to kick
Peter out because of the possibility that Peter might
go over to the Goober side and tell all he knew; but
Peter guessed this while he sat listening to Guffey’s
explanation, and realized with a thrill of excitement
that at last he had really got a hold upon the ladder
of prosperity. Not in vain had his finger been
almost broken and his wrist almost dislocated!
“Now,” said Guffey, “here’s
my idea: As a witness you’re on the bum,
but as a spy, you’re it. They know that
you blabbed, and that I know it; they know I’ve
had you in the hole. So now what I want to do
is to make a martyr of you. D’you see?”
Peter nodded; yes, he saw. It was his specialty,
seeing things like that.
“You’re an honest witness, you understand?
I tried to get you to lie, and you wouldn’t,
so now you go over to the other side, and they take
you in, and you find out all you can, and from time
to time you meet somebody as I’ll arrange it,
and send me word what you’ve learned. You
get me?”
“I get you,” said Peter, eagerly.
No words could portray his relief. He had a real
job now! He was going to be a sleuth, like Guffey
himself.
