"You've paid two fines for me, and you done what you could for me that time I was sent up, when old man Murphy said he found me in his hen-house." Gilmore nodded.
"I was outrageous put upon! The judge appointed that fellow Moxlow to defend me! Say, it was a hell of a defense he put up, and I had a friend who was willin' to swear he'd seen me in the alley back of Mike Lonigan's saloon cleaning spittoons when old man Murphy said I was in his chicken house; Moxlow said he wouldn't touch my case except on its merits, and the only merit it had was that friend, ready and willin' to swear to anything!" Montgomery shrugged his great slanting shoulders.
"He's too damn perpendicular!" "He is," agreed Gilmore.

"But what's this got to do with what you saw ?" "Not a thing; but it makes me sweat blood whenever I think of the trick Moxlow served me,--it ain't as if I had no one but myself! I got a family, see?
_I_ can't afford to go to jail,--it ain't as if I was single!" "Get back to your starting-point, Joe!" said Gilmore.
"Who do you think killed old man McBride, boss ?" "How should I know ?" "You ain't got any ideas about that ?" asked Montgomery.
Gilmore shot him a swift glance.
"I don't know whether I have or not," he replied.
"I have, boss." "You ?" His tone betrayed neither eagerness nor interest.
"That's what fetches me here, boss!" Joe replied, sinking his voice to a whisper.

"I got a damn good notion who killed old McBride; I could go out on the street and put my hand on the man who done it!" "You mustn't come here with these pipe dreams of yours, Joe; you have been drunk and all this talk about the McBride murder's gone to your head!" retorted Gilmore contemptuously.
"I hope I may die if I ain't as sober as you this minute, boss!" returned the handy-man impressively.
"Well, what do you know--or think you know ?" asked Gilmore with affected indifference.
"Boss, did I ever lie to you ?" demanded Montgomery.
"If you did I never found you out." "And why?
You never had no chance to find me out; for the reason that I always tell you the almighty everlastin' truth!" "Well ?" prompted Mr.Gilmore.
"Boss," and again Montgomery dropped his voice to a confidential whisper, "boss, I seen a man climb over old man McBride's shed yesterday just before six.

I seen him come up on top of the shed from the inside, look all around, slide down to the eaves and drop into the alley, and then streak off as if all hell was after him!" Gilmore's features were under such admirable control that they betrayed nothing of what was passing in his mind.
"Stuff!" he ejaculated at last, disdainfully.
"You think I lie, boss ?" cried Montgomery, in an intense whisper.
"You know best about that," said Gilmore quietly.
"He come so close to me I could feel his breath in my face! Boss, he was puffin' and pantin' and his breath burnt,--yes, sir, it burnt; and I heard him say, 'Oh, my God!' like that, 'Oh, my God!'" "And where were you when this happened ?" demanded Gilmore with sudden sternness.
Montgomery hesitated.
"What's that got to do with it, boss ?" "A whole lot; come, out with it.

Where were you to see and hear all this ?" "I was in White's woodshed," said Montgomery rather sullenly.
"Oh, ho, you were up to your old tricks!" "He'll never miss it; I couldn't freeze to death; there's a livin' comin' to me," said the handy-man doggedly.
"You'll probably have a try for it back of iron bars!" said Gilmore.
But it was plain that Montgomery did not enjoy Mr.Gilmore's humor.
"White's coal house is right acrost the alley from old McBride's shed.
You can go look, boss, if you don't believe me, and there's a small door opening out on to the alley, where the coal is put in." "All the same you should keep out of people's coal houses, or one of these days you'll bring off more than you bargained for; say a load of shot." "Maybe you'd like to know who I seen come over that roof ?" said the handy-man impatiently.
"How many people have you told this yarn to already ?" asked Gilmore, who seemed more anxious to discredit the handy-man in his own eyes than anything else.
"Not a living soul, boss; I guess I know enough to hang a man--" "Pooh!" said Gilmore.
"You don't believe me ?" "Yes, I'll believe that you were stealing White's coal." "Leave me tell it to you just as it happened, boss," said Montgomery.
"Then if you say I lie, I won't answer you back; we'll let it go at that." Gilmore appeared to consider for a moment, his look of mingled indifference and contempt had quite passed away.
"I guess it sounds straight, Joe!" he said at length slowly.
"Why?
Because it _is_ straight, every damn word of it, boss." And as if to give emphasis to his words the handy-man swung out a grimy fist and dropped it into an equally grimy palm.
"What did you do after that ?" asked Gilmore.
"Not much.