actical. The coast will ring with this, particularly if Hoky is lying
cold at the undertaker's. He must be dead or pinched or he'd be here by
this time. We shall make a long jump, son, and ponder the future."

He walked off briskly with Archie close beside him.

"When Hoky persisted in his ill-chosen enterprise I felt a weariness
upon me and lifted a little roadster that I've tucked away down here in
a peaceful lane. Thought I'd be all ready to give the old boy a long
pull for freedom when he came back, but alas--!"

Sure enough the roadster was there; a very handy little car indeed, and
Archie was profoundly interested to know that it was in this fashion
that a man who from his own confession was counselor extraordinary to
thieves, toured the country. The Governor had become suddenly a man of
action. Kneeling down he detached a New York license tag from the
machine, drew from his pocket a Maine tag and attached it, humming
meanwhile.

"The rural police haven't learned this simple device," he explained, as
he sent the discarded tag skimming into a corn field. "I've got about
forty miles to run inland. The back roads only and Providence our
guide!"

He jumped in and bade Archie take the seat beside him. The car was soon
bumping merrily over a rough road that wound through a pine wood. As
near as Archie could reckon from the sun that was crawling into view
they were bound for Halifax, but to be going anywhere was an infinite
relief, and to be traveling with a man whose comrade he had shot and
probably killed only a few hours earlier, imparted a piquant flavor to
the journey. This astonishing person who called himself Governor might,
for all he knew, be hurrying him to some lonely place to murder him, but
if this was his plan he was most agreeable about it. He had taken off
the mackinaw coat in which he had first appeared in the road and the
brown coat underneath was of modish cut; and as his foot played upon the
brake Archie noted that he wore silk hose. He had never dreamed that
outlaws were so careful of their raiment. And the man's talk was that of
a cultivated gentleman who wore his learning lightly and was blessed
with an easy conscience; not at all like the philosopher and guide of
criminals.

"You seem to know this country well," Archie remarked as they penetrated
more deeply into the woods and followed a grass-grown trail that ended
abruptly at an abandoned lumber camp.

"Oh, I know most of the whole Unite