y,
where I have n't been for more than thirty years, and where I never
thought to go again."

"You might visit worse lands, sir," said old Layton, half resentfully.

"You mistook my meaning, stranger," said the other, "if you thought my
words reflected on England. There is only one land I love better."

The honest speech reconciled them at once, and with a hearty shake-hands
and a kindly wished good journey, they separated.

"Did you remark that man who accompanied the sheriff?" said Layton to
his son, as they stood at the door watching the wagon while it drove
away.

"Not particularly," said Alfred.

"Well, I did my best to catch sight of him, but I could not It struck me
that he was less an invalid than one who wanted to escape observation;
he wore his hat slouched over his eyes, and covered his mouth with his
hand when he spoke."

The young man only smiled at what he deemed a mere caprice of suspicion,
and the subject dropped between them. After a while, however, the father
said,--

"What our host has just told me strengthens my impression. The
supposed sick man ate a hearty supper, and drank two glasses of stiff
brandy-and-water.'

"And if he did, can it concern us, father?" said Alfred, smiling.

"Yes, boy, if we were the cause of the sudden indisposition. He was
tired, perhaps, when he arrived, but I saw no signs of more than fatigue
in his movements, and I observed that, at the first glance towards us,
he hurried into the inner room and never reappeared till he left. I
'm not by any means certain that the fellow had not his reasons for
avoiding us."

Rather treating this as the fancy of one whose mind had been long the
prey of harassing distrusts than as founded on calmer reason, Alfred
made no answer, and they separated for the night without recurring to
the subject.

It was late on the following day they reached Gallina. The first
question was, if Harvey Winthrop lived there? "Yes; he is our sheriff,"
was the answer. They both started, and exchanged looks of strange
meaning.

"And he left this yesterday?" asked old Layton.

"Yes, sir. An Englishman came two days back with some startling news for
him,--some say of a great fortune left him somewhere,--and he's off to
England to make out his claim."

Old Layton and his son stood speechless and disconcerted. These were
the two travellers who had passed them at the log-hut, and thus had they
spent some hours, without knowing it, in the company o