Page:Dave Porter in the Gold Fields.djvu/218

202 returned Link Merwell, and his voice had almost a whine in it.

"So I did, thinkin' you was Maurice Harrison's nevvy. If I had known you was an outsider I wouldn't have come at all. I've got my own affairs to 'tend to. But bein' as I did come, you're goin' to pay me for my time and trouble," went on the miner, sharply.

"Don't you want 'em arrested, Abe?" put in Tom Dillon. "As I understand it, this here Merwell feller is wanted by the police as it is."

"Oh, don't arrest me! Please don't do that!" cried Link Merwell. He turned to Dave and his chums. "Let me go, won't you? I—I didn't do anything. I didn't take a thing out of your suitcase," he added, to Roger.

His manner was so humble and he seemed so full of terror, that the boys could not help feeling sorry for him, even though they realized that he was a criminal and should be in the hands of the law.

"What do you think we ought to do, Dave?" whispered the senator's son, pulling our hero to one side.

"That is up to you, Roger."

"If we make them prisoners what can we do with them? They will only bother us in the search for the lost mine."