upon it, all alone, and the second is that I can trust you to
fulfil a promise. Moreover, you are my next of kin, except among
the womankind; and you are just the man I want, to help me in my
enterprise."

"And I will help you, sir," I answered, fearing some conspiracy, "in
anything that is true, and loyal, and according to the laws of the
realm."

"Ha, ha!" cried the old man, laughing until his eyes ran over, and
spreading out his skinny hands upon his shining breeches, "thou hast
gone the same fools' track as the rest; even as spy Stickles went, and
all his precious troopers. Landing of arms at Glenthorne, and Lynmouth,
wagons escorted across the moor, sounds of metal and booming noises!
Ah, but we managed it cleverly, to cheat even those so near to
us. Disaffection at Taunton, signs of insurrection at Dulverton,
revolutionary tanner at Dunster! We set it all abroad, right well. And
not even you to suspect our work; though we thought at one time that you
watched us. Now who, do you suppose, is at the bottom of all this Exmoor
insurgency, all this western rebellion--not that I say there is none,
mind--but who is at the bottom of it?"

"Either Mother Melldrum," said I, being now a little angry, "or else old
Nick himself."

"Nay, old Uncle Reuben!" Saying this, Master Huckaback cast back his
coat, and stood up, and made the most of himself.

[Illustration: 534.jpg Master Huckaback cast back his coat]

"Well!" cried I, being now quite come to the limits of my intellect,
"then, after all, Captain Stickles was right in calling you a rebel,
sir!"

"Of course he was; could so keen a man be wrong about an old fool like
me? But come, and see our rebellion, John. I will trust you now with
everything. I will take no oath from you; only your word to keep
silence; and most of all from your mother."

"I will give you my word," I said, although liking not such pledges;
which make a man think before he speaks in ordinary company, against
his usual practices. However, I was now so curious, that I thought of
nothing else; and scarcely could believe at all that Uncle Ben was quite
right in his head.

"Take another glass of wine, my son," he cried with a cheerful
countenance, which made him look more than ten years younger; "you shall
come into partnership with me: your strength will save us two horses,
and we always fear the horse work. Come and see our rebellion, my boy;
you are a made man from to-night."

"But where am I