for I have the
'brevets' with me."

"Very true," said Maitland; "but you are also the same Lieutenant Miles
M'Caskey, who served in the 2d West Indian Regiment, and who left a few
unsettled matters between him and the Government there, when he quitted
Barbadoes."

"And which they won't rake up, I promise you, if they don't want to hang
an ex-governor," said he, laughing. "But none of us, Mr. Maitland, will
stand such investigations as these. There's a statute of limitations for
morals as well as for small debts."

Maitland winced under the insolent look of the other, and in a tone
somewhat shaken, continued, "At all events it will not suit me to open
these inquiries. The only piece of good fortune in the whole is that
there was none here who knew you."

"I am not so very sure of that, though," said the Major, with a quiet
laugh.

"How so? what do you mean?"

"Why; that there is an old fellow whom I remember to have met on the
West Indian Station; he was a lieutenant, I think, on board the 'Dwarf,'
and he looked as if he were puzzled about me."

"Gambier Graham?"

"That's the man; he followed me about all night, till some one carried
him off to play cribbage; but he 'd leave his game every now and then to
come and stare at me, till I gave him a look that said, 'If you do that
again, we 'll have a talk over it in the morning.'"

"To prevent which you must leave this to-night, sir," said Maitland.
"I am not in the habit of carrying followers about with me to the
country-houses where I visit."

A very prolonged whistle was M'Caskey's first reply to this speech, and
then he said: "They told me you were one of the cleverest fellows in
Europe, but I don't believe a word of it; for if you were, you would
never try to play the game of bully with a man of my stamp. Bigger men
than Mr. Norman Maitland have tried that, and did n't come so well out
of it."

An insolent toss of the head, as he threw away his cigar, was all
Maitland's answer. At last he said, "I suppose, sir, you cannot wish to
drive me to say that I do not know you?"

"It would be awkward, certainly; for then I 'd be obliged to declare
that I _do_ know you."

Instantly Maitland seized the other's arm; but M'Caskey, though not
by any means so strong a man, flung off the grasp, and started back,
saying, "Hands off, or I'll put a bullet through you. We've both of us
lived long enough amongst foreigners to know that these are liberties
that cost blood.