"Mr. William Stanley," added Mr. Reed, firmly, but respectfully. Mrs. Stanley had risen from her seat, and after curtseying to the lawyers, she turned very pale, as the name of her husband's son was so deliberately applied, by a respectable man, to the individual before her. "I was just asking Mr. Stanley, when Mr. Hazlehurst joined us," observed the forward Mr. Clapp, "if he remembered Wyllys-Roof at all; but he says his recollections of this place are rather confused." "When were you here last, sir?" asked Mr. Wyllys of the sailor, giving him a searching look at the same time. "About five years ago," was the cool reply, rather to Mr. Wyllys's surprise. "Five years ago!--I have no recollection of the occasion." The rest of the party were looking and listening, with curious, anxious interest. "You don't seem to have much recollection of me, at all, sir," said the sailor, rather bitterly. "Do you mean to say, that you were in this house five years ago?" asked Mr. Wyllys. "I was here, but I didn't say I was in the house." "What brought you here?" "Pretty much the same errand that brings me now." "What passed on the occasion?" "I can't say I remember much about it, excepting that you did not give me an over-friendly greeting." "Explain how it happened, Mr. Stanley," said Mr. Reed, "Mr. Wyllys does not understand you." "I certainly cannot understand what you mean me to believe. You say you were here, and did not receive a very friendly greeting--how was it unfriendly?" "Why, you showed me the inside of your smoke-house; which, to my notion, wasn't just the right berth for the son of your old friend, and I took the liberty of kicking off the hatches next morning, and making the best of my way out of the neighbourhood." "You remember the drunken sailor, sir, who was found one night, several years since, near the house," interrupted Harry, who had been listening attentively, and observed Mr. Wyllys's air of incredulity. "I had him locked up in the smoke-house, you may recollect." "And you must observe, Mr. Hazlehurst, that is a fact which might look ugly before a jury that did not know you," remarked Mr. Clapp; in a sort of half-cunning, half-insinuating manner. "I do not in the least doubt the ability of many men, sir, to distort actions equally innocent." "But you acknowledge the fact?" "The fact that I locked up a drunken sailor, I certainly acknowledge; and you will find me ready to acknowledge any other fact equally true." "Do you believe this to be the person you locked up, Harry?" asked Mr. Wyllys. "I think it not improbable that it is the same individual; but I did not see the man distinctly at the time." "I am glad, gentlemen, that you are prepared to admit the identity thus far--that is a step gained," observed Mr. Clapp, running his hand through his locks.