, apparently, as he said:

"He was a very tall liar, and he fooled us all. Lord, how we used to
envy him when he told of his rich mother, that she was mighty
fine-looking and could write such beautiful letters, and all that! Guess
it was all a lie, eh?"

"Couldn't write her own name; never went to school in her life."

Matthi and Cassi were becoming restless, and their black looks attracted
the villager's attention. The brothers had met him just at the beginning
of a street, and were able to have this conversation with him alone; but
presently two or three curious men came up to learn the reason of the
visit of the stalwart strangers.

"These fellers knowed Gill somewheres, an' they thought he was livin'
here. Guess from the looks uv two uv 'em it wouldn't go easy fer him ef
they was ter git their han's on him."

The villager vouchsafed this explanation to his fellow-townsmen.

"Well, we have got a crow to pick with him if we happen to find him,"
said Levi, who persisted in talking for himself and his brothers,
feeling he could not trust them, they were so angry.

"Where yer from?" asked one of the new-comers.

"Three-Sisters."

"Why, thet's where Gill got his last wife," exclaimed another.

Levi was thankful that it was growing so dark that faces could not be
clearly distinguished. He stated frankly, believing the quickest way out
of the difficulty to be the truth:

"That wife was our sister, and we are looking for him."

"I hope yer will ketch him an' bring him back here, an' I'll help yer
settle with him."

"Who are you?" asked Levi, struck by the fierce earnestness of the man
who had come up just in time to learn the object of the McAnays' quest.

"One uv his fathers-'n-law," the man replied, with brutal sarcasm.

"The father of the wife he had here?"

"Who told yer 'bout thet?" asked the man, angrily. "Bet 'twas thet
little gossipin' woman, Pete Dunn, thet I seen yer talkin' ter."

He made a rush at Pete Dunn, but Matthi interfered.

"He was only obligin'. Natur'ly we'd ask the first person we met 'bout
Gill. So don't put the blame on our friend here."

Matthi's position was so reasonable that even the angry man agreed with
him.

The brothers went in company of the villagers to the town, and stopped
all night at the inn. When they departed next morning, a crowd gathered
and wished them success in bringing to justice the man who had injured
them.

They went from town to town, stopping a wee