was he was
mentioned as the guardian of that young girl, the daughter of him as was
pisoned at Jersey."

"And is this man Trover in search of Winthrop?" asked Layton, eagerly.

"Well, he's a-lookin' arter him, somehow, that's certain; for when
somebody said, 'Oh, Harvey Winthrop ain't at Norfolk now,' he looked
quite put out and amazed, and muttered something about having made all
his journey for nothing."

"It is strange, indeed, that we should have the same destination, and
stranger still would it be if we should be both on the same errand."

"Well," said Quackin boss, after a long pause, "I've been a-rolling the
log over and over, to see which way to cut it, and at last, I believe, I
've found the right side o' it. You and I must quarrel."

"What do you mean?" asked Layton, in astonishment.

"I mean jest this. I must take up the suspicion that he has about
_you_, and separate from you. It may be to join _him_. He's one of your
Old-World sort, that's always so proud to be reckoned 'cute and smart,
that you 've only to praise his legs to get his leggin's. We'll be as
thick as thieves arter a week's travelling, and I 'll find out all that
he's about. Trust Old Shaver, sir, to get to windward of small craft
like that!"

"I own to you frankly," said Layton, "that I don't fancy using a rogue's
weapons even against a rogue."

"Them's not the sentiments of the men that made laws, sir," said
Quackinboss. "Laws is jest rogues' weapons against rogues. You want to
do something you have n't no right to, and straight away you discover
that some fellow was so wide awake once that he made a statute against
it, ay, and so cleverly too, that he first imagined every different way
you could turn your dodge, and provided for each in turn."

Layton shook his head in dissent, but could not repress a faint smile.

"Ain't it roguery to snare partridges and to catch fish, for the matter
o' that?" said he, with increased warmth. "Wherever a fellow shows
hisself more 'cute than his neighbors, there's sure to be an outcry
'What a rogue he is!'"

"Your theory would be an indictment against all mankind," said Layton.

"No, sir, for _I_ only call him a rogue that turns his sharpness to
bad and selfish ends. Now, that's not the case with him as hunts down
varmint: he's a-doin' a good work, and all the better that he may get
scratched for his pains."

"Well, what is your plan?" said Layton, rather fearful of the length
into which his