Together the two medical men decided that Theodore Dodge had suffered only from an extreme amount of overwork; that the strain had momentarily unbalanced his mind, and had made the deranged man contemplate drowning himself.
By means of a modified form of the "third degree" Chief Coy, by this time, had succeeded in making the two vagrants confess that they had found Mr.Dodge, with his coat and hat off standing by the bank of the stream.

Guessing the banker's condition, and learning his identity, the two men, though they did not confess on this point, had evidently coaxed the banker away to their shanty away off in the heart of the woods.

Undoubtedly it had been their plan to keep the banker under their own eyes, with a view of extorting a reward from the missing man's family.

The judge of the local court finally decided to send both men away for six months on a charge of vagrancy.
And here the matter seemed to end.

Though Lawyer Ripley urged the prompt payment of the offered reward to Prescott and Darrin, Mrs.Dodge, influenced by her son, demurred.