with dignity and announced to the
officer at the desk:

'This man has a complaint to bring, sir.'

'Wait!' It was Mrs. Camp, standing determinedly near the door of
entrance, who spoke. 'Afore you make a complaint, Adam Camp, about a
raskil that ain't here, s'pose you jest make sure that this here one
that is here in our midst don't git away.'

CHAPTER VI.

A CRIMINAL HUNT.

Now, I had told the officer in command my belief and suspicions
concerning the counterfeit business which I believed was going on
about us, and had been told that two of the counterfeit bills had
already been brought to his notice and captured within the week; and
Dave had insisted upon his hearing the story of my absurd arrest by
the guards, and now it only needed a look from me, and the sight of
Dave's convulsed face, to make the situation plain to him. He stepped
forward, but before he could speak a new thought had darted into Dame
Camp's active mind.

'La!' she finished, 'I s'pose, come to think, he's been brought here
now to be tried, ain't he?'

With the shadow of a smile upon his face, the officer turned toward
the farmer.

'What is your complaint?' he asked courteously; and he shot me a
glance which I knew meant, 'Let him tell his own story.' And now,
being authorized to speak, Farmer Camp began to tell, in his own
homely way, the story of the 'greenback swindle,' as he termed it.
When he had reached the point in the narrative where I made my unlucky
attempt to rout the swindlers, he turned toward me.

'I've had an idee sence, though my wife didn't agree with me
much'--here came an audible sniff from Mrs. Camp--'that this here
young man might 'a' meant well, after all, and we wus a little mite
hasty; but, ye see, he'd been a-lookin' at us so long, an' my wife'd
been a-noticin' it, havin' her mind kind o' sot like on confidence
people and sech, that she felt kind o' oneasy at his sharp looks--they
wus so keen, she said, an' so quick to look away, she got nervous, and
said she felt as if he wus a-lookin' right inter my pockets.'

'There now, Camp, you needn't be a-excusin' me! I stick ter my idee.
Anyone can see that the young feller ain't innocent, else somebody'd
'a' spoke fur him, fust off----'

Here Dave exploded audibly, and the officer checked her with a motion
of his hand.

'Let me settle this point at once by telling you, madam, that the
gentleman you have accused is an officer high in his profession, and
sent