added, "and said nothing to any living soul of your request that I
should carry money for you to Chester. Sandy Flash's information,
therefore, must have come, either directly or indirectly, from you."

Barton had listened with open mouth and amazed eyes.

"Why, the man is a devil!" he cried. "I, neither, never said a word of
the matter to any living soul!"

"Did you really send any money?" Gilbert asked.

"That I did! I got it of Joel Ferris, and it happened he was bound for
Chester, the very next day, on his own business; and so, instead of
turning it over to me, he just paid it there, according to my
directions. You'll understand, this is between ourselves?"

He darted a sharp, suspicious glance at Miss Betsy Lavender, who gravely
nodded her head.

"The difficulty is not yet explained," said Gilbert, "and perhaps you'll
_now_ not deny my right to know something more of your first
acquaintance with Sandy Flash?"

"Have it then!" Barton exclaimed, desperately--"and much good may it do
you! I thought his name was Fortune, as much as you did, till nine
o'clock that night, when he put a pistol to my breast in the woods! If
you think I'm colloguing with him, why did he rob me under threat of
murder,--money, watch, and everything?"

"Ah-ha!" said Miss Lavender, "and so that's the way your watch has been