ar there are snipes in that low land next the river.--Think it
over, Rigges, think it over."

"I am not Rigges."

"Oh, I forgot! you 're the other fellow. Well, think it over, Harpar."

"My name is not Harpar, sir."

"What do I care for a stray vowel or two? Maybe you call yourself
Harpar, or Harper? It's all the same to _us_."

"It is not the question of a vowel or two, sir; and I desire you to
remark it is the graver one of a mistaken identity!" I said this with a
high-sounding importance that I thought must astound him; but his light
and frivolous nature was impervious to rebuke.

"_We_ have nothing to say to that," replied he, carelessly. "You may be
Noakes or Styles. I believe they are the names of any fellows who are
supposed by courtesy to have no name at all, and it's all alike to _us_.
What I have to observe to you is this: nobody cares very much whether
you are detained here or not; nobody wants to detain you. Just reflect,
therefore, if it's not the best thing you can do to slope off, and make
no more fuss about it?"

"Once for all, sir," said I, still more impressively, "I am not the
person against whom this charge is made. The authorities have all along
mistaken me for another."

"Well, what if they have? Does it signify one kreutzer? We have had
trouble enough about the matter already, and do not embroil us any
further."

"May I ask, sir, just for information, who are the '_we_' you have so
frequently alluded to?"

Had I asked him in what division of the globe he understood us then to
be conversing, he would not have regarded me with a look of more blank
astonishment.

"Who are we?" repeated he. "Did you ask who are we?"

"Yes, sir, that was what I made bold to ask."

"Cool, certainly; what might be called uncommon cool. To what line of
life were you brought up to, my worthy gent? I have rather a curiosity
about your antecedents."

"That same curiosity cost you a trifle once before," said I, no
longer able to control myself, and dying to repay his impertinence. "I
remember, once upon a time, meeting you on a railroad, and you were so
eager to exhibit the skill with which you could read a man's calling,
that you bet me a sovereign you would guess mine. You did so, and lost."

"You can't be--no, it's impossible. Are you really the goggle-eyed
fellow that walked off with the bag for Kalbbratonstadt?"

"I did, by mistake, carry away a bag on that occasion, and so
punctiliously did I repay