any one is suspected. He hid it
under a log back of the garden, and when he went there to see if it was
all right, the place looked as though it had been rooted over by a drove
of hogs. But of course the hogs had nothing to do with it."

"Some one like Bud Goble must have been on the watch when Toby put it
under the log," said Marcy, who thought he knew just how the old negro
felt when he discovered his loss. "He'll not see that money again. I
told him to give it to Mr. Riley."

"And that reminds me that we saw and talked with Mr. Riley, who was as
smiling and agreeable as you please," said Dixon. "If I had been guilty
of burning out two innocent men because they differed from me in
opinion, I don't think I could have had the cheek to show myself on the
street. But Mr. Riley did not seem to mind it."

"Do you really think he had a hand in that affair?" inquired Marcy. "I
don't like to think that he is that sort."

"When a fellow allows himself to be carried away, as he and the rest of
that committee have, by prejudice and rage, he will do some things he
would not think of doing if he were in his right mind. Look at Rodney,"
said Dixon; and Marcy wondered if he knew or suspected that Rodney had
written that mischievous letter. "It's in the mouth of every rebel in
town whom we talk with that the committee burned those houses, and what
everybody says must have some truth in it."

"Listen to me a minute, and I will condemn Mr. Riley out of his own
mouth," said Dick, in an earnest whisper. "When Captain Wilson asked him
how it came that he could reach the fire so quickly, seeing that it was
more than a mile from his own house and there were no alarm bells
ringing, Mr. Riley replied that it was because he happened to be awake
when the fire commenced. Now, if that was the case, why did he run right
by Elder Bowen's burning house to come up town? I was on post that very
night, and know that the two fires were started almost at the same
moment. Mr. Riley wasn't at home, I tell you. He was in Barrington; and
that was the way he got to the fire before we did. Put that in your
pipes."

"You have made out a pretty strong case against him so far as
circumstantial evidence will go," Dixon remarked.

"Plenty strong enough to make him prove an alibi if he were prosecuted,"
said Marcy. "Where are those Union men now?"

"Living quietly and comfortably in two of the Elder's negro cabins,"
replied Dick. "Some of the rebels we talk