He
had his stick with him, for he never went out without it, but,
finding it in his way, he leaned it against a tree and went
plunging up the bluff without it. Why he didn't call out the
child's name he doesn't know; he guessed he thought he would
surprise her; and why, when he got to the top of the bluff and
didn't find her, he should turn about for his stick instead of
hunting for her on the road, he also fails to explain, saying
again, he doesn't know. What circumstances force him to tell and
what he declares to be true is this: That instead of going back
diagonally through the woods to the lone chestnut where he had
left his stick, he crossed the bridge and took the path running
along the edge of the ravine: That in doing this he came upon the
body of a man in the black recesses of the Hollow, a man so
evidently beyond all help that he would have hurried by without a
second look if it had not been for the watch he saw lying on the
ground close to the dead man's side. It was a very fine watch, and
it seemed like tempting Providence to leave it lying there exposed
to the view of any chance tramp who might come along. It seemed
better for him to take it into his own charge till he found some
responsible person willing to carry it to Police Headquarters. So,
without stopping to consider what the consequences might be to
himself, he tore it away by the chain from the hold it had on the
dead man's coat and put it in his pocket. He also took some other
little things; after which he fled away into town, where the sight
of a saloon was too much for him and he went in to have a drink to
take the horrors out of him.
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