gittin' mended all this while? Mainspring broke, as I've heerd say;
well, I don't wonder! Gilbert, I guess this much is true. Alf. Barton'd
never live so long without that watch, and that half-peck o' seals, if
he could help it!"

"This, too, may as well be kept to ourselves," Barton suggested. "It
isn't agreeable to a man to have it known that he's been so taken in as
I was, and that's just the reason why I kept it to myself; and, of
course, I shouldn't like it to get around."

Gilbert could do no less than accept this part of the story, and it
rendered his later surmises untenable. But the solution which he sought
was as far off as ever.

"Barton," he said, after a long pause, "will you do your best to help me
in finding out how Sandy Flash got the knowledge?"

"Only show me a way! The best would be to catch him and get it from his
own mouth."

He looked so earnest, so eager, and--as far as the traces of cunning in
his face would permit--so honest, that Gilbert yielded to a sudden
impulse, and said,--

"I believe you, Barton. I've done you wrong in my thoughts,--not
willingly, for I don't want to think badly of you or any one else,--but
because circumstances seemed to drive me to it. It would have been
better if you had told me of your robbery at the start."

"You're right there, Gilbert! I believe I was an outspoken fellow