as the rest; even as spy Stickles went, and
all his precious troopers. Landing of arms at Glenthorne, and Lynmouth,
wagons escorted across the moor, sounds of metal and booming noises!
Ah, but we managed it cleverly, to cheat even those so near to
us. Disaffection at Taunton, signs of insurrection at Dulverton,
revolutionary tanner at Dunster! We set it all abroad, right well. And
not even you to suspect our work; though we thought at one time that you
watched us. Now who, do you suppose, is at the bottom of all this Exmoor
insurgency, all this western rebellion--not that I say there is none,
mind--but who is at the bottom of it?'

'Either Mother Melldrum,' said I, being now a little angry, 'or else old
Nick himself.'

'Nay, old Uncle Reuben!' Saying this, Master Huckaback cast back his
coat, and stood up, and made the most of himself.

'Well!' cried I, being now quite come to the limits of my intellect,
'then, after all, Captain Stickles was right in calling you a rebel,
sir!'

'Of course he was; could so keen a man be wrong about an old fool like
me? But come, and see our rebellion, John. I will trust you now with
everything. I will take no oath from you; only your word to keep
silence; and most of all from your mother.'

'I will give you my word,' I said, although liking not such pledges;
which make a man think before he speaks in ordinary company, against
his usual practices. However, I was now so curious, that I thought of
nothing else; and scarcely could believe at all that Uncle Ben was quite
right in his head.

'Take another glass of wine, my son,' he cried with a cheerful
countenance, which made him look more than ten years younger; 'you shall
come into partnership with me: your strength will save us two horses,
and we always fear the horse work. Come and see our rebellion, my boy;
you are a made man from to-night.'

'But where am I to come and see it? Where am I to find it, sir?'

'Meet me,' he answered, yet closing his hands, and wrinkling with
doubt his forehead, 'come alone, of course; and meet me at the Wizard's
Slough, at ten to-morrow morning.'

CHAPTER LVIII

MASTER HUCKABACK'S SECRET

Knowing Master Huckaback to be a man of his word, as well as one who
would have others so, I was careful to be in good time the next morning,
by the side of the Wizard's Slough. I am free to admit that the name of
the place bore a feeling of uneasiness, and a love of distance, in some
measure to my hea