Page:The Millbank Case - 1905 - Eldridge.djvu/216

 He knew there was no use in looking for boat or companion, and so crept up the bank around the Falls, secured another boat, and finally towards morning landed just below the Bombazee Rips. He set the boat afloat and plunged into the woods. That is all I am permitted to tell you."

"But it is not all you know," Trafford said.

"It is all I know. If I heard anything more, I heard it under the seal of confession and know naught of it."

Trafford pondered on the story for some time, without speaking. The habits born of his profession held him, warning him to avoid hasty conclusion as well for the man as against him. It was his business to get the truth, not to find a confirmation or refutation of a previously formed opinion.

The priest waited without a sign of impatience. At last Trafford raised his head and said:

"I do not think it could have been done."

"What?" asked the priest.

"The leap from the boat over the falls."

"I have been told by eye-witnesses that it has been done," declared the priest.