He is broken-hearted, your honor, but
he daren't lave them. He said they had sworn if he ever tried to run
away they would hunt him down; and the Red Captain said that he would
send information to the poliss that it was Denis who helped him fire
the hut when those poor cratures were burned, and would say, he had
been in the thick of it all along; and how could he prove the differ?
So he daren't for the life of him move, your honor; and tould me to
keep away and go home, for I could do him no good, and if they caught
me spaking to him they would kill the two of us."
"I promise you willingly," Captain O'Connor said, "I will not say who
pointed out their hiding-place, and if your husband does not join in
the resistance he certainly shall receive no hurt. If he is caught
with them I am afraid that I shall be exceeding my duty in letting him
go; but surely he would have no difficulty in proving that he had only
accompanied them in consequence of their threats."
"That's what he couldn't prove, sir. That's just what they tould him:
if they were caught themselves they knew there was no chance for them,
and they would all swear together that he had been with them all
along; and how could the boy prove that he wasn't?"
"Well, Mrs. Moore, I will try and strain a point," Captain O'Connor
said. "You see, people sometimes escape after they are taken, and I
think we shall be able to manage somehow that Denis shan't appear at
the bar with the others; and if it should turn out that cannot be
managed I will engage to make such representations to the authorities
that your husband shall get off free.
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