I have chosen to acknowledge you to-day of my own free will: I can as easily denounce you as an impostor to-morrow, if I choose.

Have you told your story to any one in the valley ?" "No." "See that you don't, then.

Before you go, you must answer me a few more questions." He drew a chair to his table, and dipped a pen in the ink, as if to take down the answers.

The young man, finding the only chair thus occupied, moved the Doctor's books aside, and sat down on the table beside him.
The questions were repetitions of those already asked, but more in detail, and thoroughly practical in their nature.

The answers were given straightforwardly and unconcernedly, as if the subject was not worth the trouble of invention or evasion.