All these things and more Peter told; thinking that he was safe now,
under the protection of authority. But after he had spent about two
months in the hospital, he was summoned one day into the office, and
there stood Guffey, glowering at him in a black fury. “You damned
fool!” were Guffey’s first words.
Peter’s knees went weak and his teeth began to chatter again.
“Wh-wh-what?” he cried.
“Didn’t I tell you to hold your mouth?” And Guffey looked as if he
were going to twist Peter’s wrist again.
“Mr. Guffey, I ain’t told a soul! I ain’t said one word about the
Goober case, not one word!”
Peter rushed on, pouring out protests. But Guffey cut him short.
“Shut up, you nut! Maybe you didn’t talk about the Goober case, but
you talked about yourself. Didn’t you tell somebody you’d worked
with that fellow Kalandra?”
“Y-y-yes, sir.”
“And you knew the police were after him, and after you, too?”
“Y-y-yes, sir.”
“And you said you’d been arrested selling fake patent medicines?”
“Y-y-yes, sir.”
“Christ almighty!” cried Guffey. “And what kind of a witness do you
think you’ll make?”
“But,” cried Peter in despair, “I didn’t tell anybody that would
matter. I only--”
“What do you know what would matter?” roared the detective, adding
a stream of furious oaths. “The Goober people have got spies on us;
they’ve got somebody right here in this jail. Anyhow, they’ve found
out about you and your record. You’ve gone and ruined us with your
blabbing mouth!”
“My Lord!” whispered Peter, his voice dying away.
“Look at yourself on a witness-stand! Look at what they’ll do to you
before a jury! Traveling over the country, swindling people with
patent medicines--and getting in jail for it! Working for that
hell-blasted scoundrel Kalandra--” and Guffey added some dreadful
words, descriptive of the loathsome vices of which the Chief
Magistrian had been accused. “And you mixed up in that kind of
thing!”
“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?