Page:Dave Porter on Cave Island.djvu/260

244 youth was a study. He was downcast to the last degree.

"Link, what made you do it?" he asked, in a voice that was not unkindly.

"I didn't do it—that is, it wasn't my plan!" burst out the culprit, passionately. "Oh, I know they'll hold me for it, just the same as they'll hold Nick, if they catch him! But I'll tell you honestly, Dave, it wasn't any of my planning. I'm bad, and I know it, but I am not as bad as that. It was Nick who got the whole thing up. You know how mad he has been at you ever since he had to leave Oak Hall. Well, it was his plan to make you a prisoner first and then make it look as if you had robbed the jewelry works. You ask Doctor Montgomery if that isn't so. Well, the first part of the plan fell through, for you got away. Then he got me to go to Crumville, and found out where we could get the dynamite. I got scared then and wanted to back out, but he said if I did he'd throw all the blame on me, and so I stuck to him. I wish I hadn't done it," concluded Merwell, bitterly.

"Did you go direct to Jacksonville after the robbery?"

"No, we went to Washington first and there we pawned one diamond for sixty dollars. Then we went to Jacksonville. There we met Luke Watson, and both of us got scared to death. We