“And what am I to do, Amy?”

“Just what he tells you—­nothing more or less.  Tell him everything from the beginning to the end.  All about your quarrel with Mrs. Darcy—­I read in the papers you had one.  Was that so?”

“Yes, and, I am sorry to say, it was partly about you.”

“I don’t mind, Jimmie boy.  I know it couldn’t have been very bad.”

“It wasn’t.  She—­well, she sneered at you for thinking of marrying me—­a poor man—­and—­”

“As if money counted, Jimmie boy!” cried the girl fondly.

“I know.  But it angered me, I admit.  However, nothing more came of that.  And as for her finding fault with me about my electric lathe, and about the money she owed me—­well, that was a sort of periodic disagreement.”

“Tell the colonel all about it.”

“I will.  And are you sure your father—­”

“Dad’s with me in this—­with me and you!  He’d have come to see you himself to-day, but I said I wanted to see you first.  He’ll be along soon.  So you see, Jimmie boy, things aren’t so bad as they seem, though I hate it that you should be in this horrible place.”

“It is horrible, Amy.  But now that I know you—­you haven’t given me up—­”

“Don’t dare say such a thing, Jimmie boy!” and the girl’s eyes sparkled with a new light.

“Well, it won’t be so horrible from now on.  And is the colonel really going to take my case?”

“Really and truly!  I told him he had to if he wanted to fish in dad’s trout stream,” and she laughed—­a strange sound in that gloomy place.

Then they talked about many things.  James Darcy had read much of Colonel Ashley’s achievements in detective work, and the very magic of the name was enough to give a prisoner courage.

Soon it was time to leave, after Kenneth had conferred briefly with his client.  The prisoner went back to his little cell with a happier look on his face than when he had left it.

As for Colonel Ashley, after he had revived Amy from her faint at the stream, he had told Shag to take apart the fishing rod.

“For, Shag, I guess I won’t be needing it for a week or so,” said the old detective, and there was a mingling of two emotions in his voice.

“Uh, ah!” murmured Shag, as, carefully, he put away the delicate rod and reel.  “It’s either fishin’ or detectin’ wif de colonel, dat’s whut it suah am!  Fishin’ or detectin’!  De colonel ain’t one dat kin carry watermelons on bof shoulders!”

Returning from his fishing trip with the one, lone specimen, Colonel Ashley, having escorted Amy Mason to her automobile, went back to the hotel with Shag.

“I might have known how it would be, Shag,” he remarked, almost mournfully.  “I might have known I’d run into something when I came here for rest.”

“Dat’s right, Colonel.  Yo’ suah might!  But who does yo’ s’pect did dish yeah killin’?”