to fetch the trap round.

"So you have turned thief catcher, have you?" he said in a sneering
tone, that recalled him to Mark's memory far more than his face had
done, "and you carry a Bow Street staff about with you, and pretend to
belong to the force: that is a punishable offense, you know."

"Yes, it would be if I had no right to use it," Mark said quietly; "but
it happens that I have a right, having been for a year and a half in the
force. I joined it solely to hunt you down, and now that I have done so
my resignation will be sent in tomorrow."

"And how is the worthy squire?"

Mark started to his feet, and seized one of the pistols lying before
him.

"You villain!" he exclaimed, "I wonder you dare mention his name--you,
his murderer."

"It was but tit for tat," the man said coolly; "he murdered me, body and
soul, when he sent me to the hulks. I told him I would be even with him.
I did not think I had hit him at the time, for I thought that if I had
you would have stopped with him, and would not have chased me across the
fields."

"You scoundrel!" Mark said. "You know well enough that you came back,
stole into his room, and stabbed him."

Bastow looked at him with a puzzled expression.

"I don't know what you are talking about," he said. "I fired at him
through the window--I don't mind saying so to you, because there are no
witnesses--and saw him jump up, but I fancied I had missed him. I
saw you bolt out of the room, and thought it better to be off at once
instead of taking another shot. You gave me a hard chase. It was lucky
for you that you did not come up with me, for if you had done so I
should have shot you; I owed you one for having killed as good a comrade
as man ever had, and for that bullet you put in my shoulder before. If
I had not been so out of breath that I could not feel sure of my aim I
should have stopped for you, but I rode straight to town."

"A likely story," Mark said shortly. "What, you will pretend that there
were two murderers hanging round the house that night?--a likely tale
indeed."

"I tell you that if your father was killed by a knife or dagger, I had
nothing to do with it," the man said. "I am obliged to the man, whoever
he was. I had intended to go down again to Reigate to finish the job
myself; I should scarcely have missed a second time. So it is for that
you hunted me down? Well, I don't blame you; I never forgive an injury,
and I see your sentiments are mine. Whether