o mean to say so."

"I'll bet a hundred dollars she is the boat that was bought with that
money."

"I think it's very likely; but I didn't buy her with it," replied
Bobtail.

"But you got some man to do it for you. The boat didn't turn up in
Camden harbor till a week after the money was lost."

"I don't know anything about that; but if you want to take me up again,
I'm ready," answered Bobtail, smartly.

"We don't want to take you up. We only want to know who stole that
letter. Your bringing that boat here, and no one claiming her, look a
little suspicious--that's all," added Squire Gilfilian.

"But I never was in Bar Harbor, where the boat was bought, in my life,"
pleaded Bobtail.

"You might have got some man to buy her for you."

"I might, but I didn't."

"You seem to be using the boat just as if she were your own."

"I told Captain Chinks I was ready to give her up whenever the owner
came for her; and she is advertised in the Camden Herald and the
Rockland Gazette."

"That's a blind," said Captain Chinks. "But I'm going to look the thing
up. I was in the squire's office when that letter came, and by and by
somebody will say I took it."

"Well, I don't know but you did," added Bobtail, though the suspicion
had never before entered his mind.

"What!" exclaimed the man with a doubtful reputation, his face flushing.

"I don't say you did; and I don't know anything at all about it."

"Don't be saucy, Bobtail," interposed Squire Gilfilian.

"I have just as much right to say he took the letter, as he has to say I
took it. He had just as much to do with it as I had; and he was in the
office when I left it."

"But you went back again, you rascal!" said Captain Chinks, angrily.

"No, I didn't go back again."

"You left the office before I did, but you overtook me on the road to
the Portland steamer wharf. You went back again; I know you did!"
stormed the captain.

"I didn't go back."

"Well, where were you all that time?"

"I went into a shop and bought some gingerbread and cheese, and I can
prove it, too."

"Didn't you hear me tell the post-master that I expected a letter with
some money in it, the day that letter came?" asked the squire.

"No, sir; I did not."

"I told the post-master what I expected when I asked him to send me the
letter. You were in the office then, Bobtail."

"No, sir; I didn't see you at all that day. I wasn't in the post-office
half a minute before the letter was give