o his free and easy address. "You suit these times
devilish well. I can't find it in my heart to quarrel with you. We have
both been somewhat rough in speech, and so, the account is square. But
now tell me, after all, are you sure you have guessed me right? How do
you know I am not one of these very rebels myself?"

"For two good and point-blank reasons. First, you dar'n't deny that you
have pocketed the king's money and worn his coat--that's one. And,
second, you are now here under the orders of one of his officers."

"No, no, good friend," said the man, with a voice of less boldness than
heretofore, "you are mistaken for once in your life. So far what you
say, I don't deny--I am in the service of a gentleman, who for some
private affairs of his own has come on a visit to this part of the
province, and I admit I have been in the old country."

"I am not mistaken, good friend," drawled out Robinson, affectedly. "You
come from the south. I can tell men's fortunes without looking into the
palms of their hands."

"You are wrong again," said the other tartly, as he grew angry at being
thus badgered by his opponent, "I come from the north."

"That's true and it's false both," returned Robinson. "From the north, I
grant you--to the south with Sir Henry, and from the south up here. You
will find I can conjure a little, friend."

"The devil take your conjuring!" exclaimed the other, as he bit his lip
and strode restlessly backward and forward; which perplexity being
observed by the sergeant, he did not fail to aggravate it by breaking
into a hoarse laugh, as he said----

"It wa'n't worth your while to try to deceive me. I knowed you by
manifold and simultaneous signs. Him that sets about scouting after
other people's secrets, ought to be wary enough to larn to keep his own.
But don't take it so to heart, neighbor, there's no occasion for
oneasiness--I have no mind to harm you."

"Master bully," said the stranger, planting himself immediately in front
of the sergeant, "in England, where I was bred, we play at cudgels, and
sometimes give broken heads; and some of us are gifted with heavy fists,
wherewith we occasionally contrive to box a rude fellow who pries too
much into our affairs."

"In our country," replied Horse Shoe, "we generally like to get a share
of whatever new is stirring, and, though we don't practise much with
cudgels, yet, to sarve a turn, we do, now and then, break a head or so;
and, consarning that fi