e was very 'tight,' as we call it,--far gone in liquor,
I mean.

"'Have you found out that same water-power you were arter?' said he.

"'No,' said I. 'It's down West a man must go who has n't a bag full of
dollars. Everything up hereabouts is bought up at ten times its worth.'

"'Well, look sharp after the young 'un,' said he, laughing; 'that's _my_
advice to you. Though you're Yankee, he 'll be too much for you in the
end.' He said this, drinking away all the time, and getting thicker in
his speech at every word.

"'I ain't a man to neglect a warnin',' says I, in a sort of whisper,
'and if _you_ mean friendly by me, speak out.'

"'And ain't that speaking out,' says he, boldly, 'when I say to a fellow
I scarcely know by sight, "Mind your eye; look out for squalls!" I
wonder what more he wants? Does he expect me to lend him money?' said
he, with an insolent laugh.

"'No,' said I, in the same easy way, 'by no manner o' means; and if it's
myself you allude to, I ain't in the vocative case, sir. I 've got in
that old leather pocket-book quite enough for present use.'

"'Watch it well, then; put it under your head o' nights, that's all,'
said he, hiccuping; 'and if you wake up some morning without it, don't
say the fault was Oliver Trover's.' This was a-tellin' me his name,
which I remembered the moment I heard it.

"'You 'll take a brandy-smash or a glass of bitters with _me_ now, sir?'
said I, hopin' to get something more out of him; but he wouldn't have
it. He said, with a half-cunning leer, 'No more liquor, no more liquor,
and no more secrets! If you was to treat me to all in the bar, you 'd
get nothing more out of Noll Trover.'"

"But what does the fellow mean by his insinuations about me?" said
Layton, angrily. "I never knew him, never met him, never so much as
heard of him!"

"What does that signify if he has heard of _you_, and suspects you to
know something about _him?_ He ain't all right, that's clear enough; but
our country is so full of fellows like that, it ain't easy work tracking
'em."

Layton shrugged his shoulders with an indifference, as though to say the
matter did not interest him; but Quackinboss rejoined quickly, "I 've a
notion that it concerns us, sir. I heerd his inquiry about all the lines
down South, and asking if any one knew a certain Harvey Winthrop, down
at Norfolk."

"Winthrop--Winthrop? Where have I heard that name?"

"In that book of your father's,--don't you remember it? It