inspection.

Guzzy seemed to himself to grow big with accumulating importance.

"The officers seem to be duly authorized," said the squire, after a long
and minute examination of their papers; "but they should identify the
prisoner as the escaped convict for whom they are searching."

"Here's a description," said one of the officers, "in an advertisement:
'Escaped from the Penitentiary, on the ----th instant, William Beigh,
_alias_ Bay Billy, _alias_ Handsome; age, twenty-eight; height, five
feet ten; complexion dark, hair black, eyes dark brown, mole on left
cheek; general appearance handsome, manly, and intelligent. A skillful
and dangerous burglar. Sentenced in 1866 to five years'
imprisonment--two years yet to serve.' That," continued the officer,
"describes him to a dot; and, if there's any further doubt, look here!"

As he spoke, he unclasped a cloak which the prisoner wore, and disclosed
the striped uniform of the prison.

"There seems no reasonable doubt in this case, and the prisoner will
have to go back to prison," said the justice. "But I must detain him
until I ascertain whether he has stolen anything from Mrs. Wyett's
residence. In case he has done so, we can prosecute at the expiration of
his term."

The prisoner seemed almost convulsed with rage, though of a sort which
one of the officers whispered to the other, he did not exactly
understand.

Guzzy eyed him resentfully, and glared at the officers with considerable
disfavor.

Guzzy was a law-abiding man, but to have an expected triumph belittled
and postponed because of foreign interference was enough to blind almost
_any_ man's judicial eyesight.

"Well," said one of the officers, "put him in the lock-up' and
investigate in the morning; we won't want to start until then, after the
tramp he's given us. Oh, Bay Billy, you're a smart one--no mistake about
that. Why in thunder don't you use your smartness in the right
way?--there's more money in business than in cracking cribs."

"Besides the moral advantage," added the squire, who was deacon as well,
and who, now that he had concluded his official duties, was not adverse
to laying down the higher law.

"Just so," exclaimed the officer; "and for his family's sake, too. Why,
would you believe it, judge? They say Billy has one of the finest wives
in the commonwealth--handsome, well-educated, religious, rich, and of
good family. Of course she didn't know what his profession was when she
married hi