Page:Dave Porter at Oak Hall.djvu/307

Rh him. But in this the robber had failed; and the quarrel, as already described, had been the consequence. How much Taggart Dutch owed the sailor could not be ascertained. He said it was but two dollars, but Dave and a number of others suspected it was much more.

"They would never quarrel like that over two dollars," said Dave.

"I've heard of tramps quarreling over a dime," answered Roger. "And sometimes they shoot each other, too."

"But this Billy Dill is no tramp, Roger—he looks to me like a pretty decent sort of sailor."

"That is true. It is queer he thought he knew you."

"Yes, that is queer, and some day I want to ask him about it. But he is too sick yet."

What Dave said about the old tar being sick was true. As the days went by, instead of growing better, Billy Dill appeared to grow worse, until the doctors attending him thought that he would die. Around Christmas time, when Dave and Roger paid him a visit, he was at his lowest, and, somehow, this made Dave feel very sober.

"If he knows anything of my past, I trust he doesn't die with the secret," said he, and he prayed that the sailor might recover. When he journeyed to Crumville for the holidays he told Mr. Wadsworth about the tar, and to please his protégé the