"He has taken to the road, I fancy, and has given us a good deal of
trouble; if it is the man I think it is, he has been away from London
for some years, and came back eight or ten months ago."

The reply was always to the same effect:

"I don't know of such a man, and never heard of him. For my part,
I would not split on a pal, not for anything; but I should not mind
earning five guineas to put you on a cove who is not one of us. Besides,
it aint only the money; you know, you might do me a good turn some day."

"Quite so; well, I can tell you it is a good deal more than five guineas
that would be earned if you could put me in the way of laying my hand on
his shoulder. I don't think that he is living in town. I expect he is
in some quiet neighborhood; still, if he is on the road, he must have a
horse somewhere. You might ask among the stables, and find out whether
anyone keeps a horse there who is in the habit of going out in the
afternoon and not coming back until the next day. You have plenty of
time upon your hands, and it would pay you well if you could bring me
the information I want."

The officer said to Mark at the end of two months: "These knights of the
road don't often mix themselves up with the London housebreakers. The
most likely men to be able to tell you about the doings of such a
fellow would be receivers of stolen goods, but it would be dangerous to
question any of them--they would be sure to put him on his guard. I will
give you a list of some of them, and I should say that your best way
would be to watch their places of an evening, from the time it gets dark
till ten or eleven. Of course, it is just a chance. You may watch one
place for a month and he may happen to go there the very day you have
gone off to watch another crib. Still, there is just the chance, and I
don't see that there is one any other way."

During this time Mark had been taking a lesson every evening with
Needham, and had surprised his teacher with the rapidity of his
progress; he had said, the very evening before, when Mark had countered
him with a blow that knocked him for two or three minutes senseless:

"We have had enough of this, governor; you have got beyond me
altogether, and I don't want another blow like that. You had better take
on Gibbons now. You are too big altogether for me, and yet you don't
fight like a heavyweight, for you are as quick on your pins as I am."

Well pleased at having the day to himself and