all events, I reckon we are both satisfied _now_ as to who killed Widow
Clemmens!"

Mr. Byrd could not resist a slight sarcasm. "I thought you were
satisfied in that regard before?" said he. "At least, I understood that
at a certain time you were very positive it was Mr. Hildreth."

"So I was," the fellow good-naturedly allowed; "so I was. The byways of
a crime like this are dreadful dark and uncertain. It isn't strange that
a fellow gets lost sometimes. But I got a jog on my elbow that sent me
into the right path," said he, "as, perhaps, you did too, sir, eh?"

Not replying to this latter insinuation, Mr. Byrd quietly repeated:

"You got a jog on your elbow? When, may I ask?"

"Three days ago, _just_!" was the emphatic reply.

"And from whom?"

Instead of replying, the man leaned back against the wall of the hut and
looked at his interlocutor in silence.

"Are we going to join hands over this business?" he cried, at last, "or
are you thinking of pushing your way on alone after you have got from me
all that I know?"

The question took Mr. Byrd by surprise.

He had not thought of the future. He was as yet too much disturbed by
his memories of the past. To hide his discomfiture, he began to pace the
floor, an operation which his thoroughly wet condition certainly made
advisable.

"I have no wish to rob you of any glory you may hope to reap from the
success of the plot you have carried on here to-day," he presently
declared, with some bitterness; "but if this Craik Mansell _is_ guilty,
I suppose it is my duty to help you in the collection of all suitable
and proper evidence against him."

"Then," said the other, who had been watching him with rather an anxious
eye, "let us to work." And, sitting down on the table, he motioned to
Mr. Byrd to take a seat upon the block at his side.

But the latter kept up his walk.

Hickory surveyed him for a moment in silence, then he said:

"You must have something against this young man, or you wouldn't be
here. What is it? What first set you thinking about Craik Mansell?"

Now, this was a question Mr. Byrd could not and would not answer. After
what had just passed in the hut, he felt it impossible to mention to
this man the name of Imogene Dare in connection with that of the nephew
of Mrs. Clemmens. He therefore waived the other's interrogation and
remarked:

"My knowledge was rather the fruit of surmise than fact. I did not
believe in the guilt of Gouverneur Hildr