face
and fine gray eyes would not have suggested his connection with
burglary. He was an engaging sort of person, and overcoming his
discomfiture at having sent a bullet into the foolish Hoky, Archie
decided suddenly that the man might be of service to him. He was in
pressing need of a change of clothes but he was in no condition to
proceed to Portsmouth to redeem his suitcase; an impression that was
confirmed unexpectedly by his captor.

"You will pardon my candor, but you certainly look like the devil.
There's a rip in your trousers that needs explaining and that swipe on
your face reminds me of a map of the Mississippi done in red ink. Let me
introduce myself to you as the Governor. Among the powers that prey that
is my proud cognomen, not to say _alias_. Now please be frank--what
mischief brings you here at this pale hour?"

Archie gave serious thought to his answer. If he could convince this
singular person that he was a crook he would be less likely to suspect
that he had been the instrument of Hoky's undoing. And there was the
possibility that if he met the Governor's friendly advances in a
reciprocal spirit the man might help him out of his predicament. The
Governor was waiting for his answer, humming pleasantly as he surveyed
the heavens.

"I've got to make a getaway and be in a hurry about it," declared Archie
with a confidential air that caused a humorous light to play in the
Governor's eyes.

"A little trouble of some sort, eh? Perhaps fearing a collision with the
revised statutes of this or adjacent states?"

"Something like that," Archie answered huskily.

"It rather occurred to me that you were not promenading for mere
pleasure," replied the Governor, drawing his hand across his chin. "The
causes that lead people to travel have been enumerated by no less an
authority than Mr. Laurence Sterne as--

"Infirmity of body,

"Imbecility of mind, or

"Inevitable necessity.

"Unless my memory errs the same authority classifies travelers as the
idle, the inquisitive, the lying, the proud, the vain, the splenetic; to
which he added the delinquent and felonious traveler, the unfortunate
and innocent traveler, the traveler without aim and the wandering
sentimentalist. From the looks of your clothing I should judge that you
belong to the necessitous group, though from a certain uneasy expression
I might easily place you among the delinquent and criminal. A
fashionable defaulter perhaps? No. Then let it g