The burglar looked up.

“You’re the boy that wounded me, ain’t you?” he asked.

“Yes,” said Herbert.

“Curse you!  I don’t know but you’ve killed me.  I’m shot through the shoulder.  Then, that cursed fall!  I feel as if I had broken my back.”

“I did not want to shoot you,” said Herbert.

“What did you do it for, then?”

“Because you forced me to it.  You were after Mr. Carroll’s money.”

“Didn’t I offer to divide with you?”

“Yes, but, of course, I would not agree to that.”

“Are you so much better than common folks?” sneered the burglar.

“I don’t know about that.  I would not steal.”

“Take him up,” said the landlord to the hotel servants.  “He don’t deserve it, but I’ve promised the old gentleman we’d see to him.  Tom White, you may go for the doctor.”

Two men approached and attempted to lift the wounded burglar.  But, in the first attempt, they touched the injured shoulder.  He uttered a shriek of pain, and exclaimed, “You’ll murder me!”

“Let me lift him,” said Herbert.  “Perhaps you were too rough.”

At length, but not without much groaning on the part of the burglar, he was got into the house, and laid on a bed in a small room on the first floor.

“Do you feel better?” asked Herbert.

“A little.”

“Do you think you have broken any bones in falling?”

“I thought so at first, but perhaps I am only bruised.”

“When the doctor comes, he will extract the bullet, and relieve you of a good deal of your pain.”

“You are a strange boy,” said the burglar, with a look of surprise.

“Why am I?”

“You shot me, and yet you pretend to be sorry for me now.”

“So I am.”

“Then, why did you shoot me?”

“I have already told you.  Because I was obliged to.  I would not have done it, if there had been any other way.  I shot the first barrel in the air.”

“By accident?”

“No; I thought it would alarm you, and I might save the money without injuring you.”

“Do you really mean that?”

“Yes.”

“And you don’t have any ill-will against me now?”

“No.”

“That is strange.”

“I don’t know why it should be.”

“I suppose I ought to hate you, because you have brought me to this pass,” said the burglar, thoughtfully, “but I don’t.  That is strange, too.”

“I am so glad you feel so,” said Herbert.  “I am very sorry for your pain, and I will do what I can to relieve it.”

“I have no money to pay the landlord and the doctor.”

“Mr. Carroll says he will pay all needed expenses.”  “The man I wanted to rob?”

“Yes.”

“Then hang me, if I ain’t ashamed of trying to rob him,” said the burglar, earnestly.

“Have you ever robbed anyone before?”