“Sam Sawyer is ready to swear on the witness stand,” the ’squire was saying, “that the man he discovered climbing out of the store window last night, and who was one of the burglars, if there was more than one, was the same man he met yesterday afternoon on the Hare road, and who inquired the way to Mount Riga, which was the name once given to Break o’ Day.” “Didn’t Sam give the name of this stranger?” asked a bystander. “He did; and that is the best part of it. He said he was one Gideon Bayne, and that he lived in town here when he was a small boy, but thought perhaps people had forgotten him now, as he had forgotten the country.” “Bayne?” half queried, half exclaimed, another, as if the name was one that he vaguely recalled. “Wasn’t that old miser’s name Bayne, who lived and died at the old red house when such a flurry was raised hereabouts?” “Just that--Timothy Bayne. Folks thought he was killed by his hired man, but neither could be found when they come to look for ’em. They were a hard crowd.” “But old Tim Bayne had neither chick nor child, living all alone.” “That does not hinder him from having thieving relatives, running around the country breaking into stores and post offices, does it?” “But Tim Bayne owned all of that quarter of the town when he died, though I can’t say it was very valuable.” “Just so; and there being no one to claim it when he died or disappeared--I never thought the man was dead--the Cornhills got the whole of it for a mere song. But it hasn’t done the deacon much good. Ill-gotten gains never do,” added the squire, aiming to be philosophical. “I don’t quite recall any other Bayne in town them days,” declared an old resident, “though my memory doesn’t often go back on me.” “That may be, but it doesn’t require much to recall the fag-end Bayne that we have with us now,” remarked ’Squire Hardy, who had just seen Rob, who had stopped at the outside of the party. “Say, youngster, wasn’t your father Gid Bayne?” The question was so unexpected, the situation so ominous to him in its outcome, that Little Hickory had hard work to command his feelings. As it was, he feared a moment later that he had betrayed himself by his looks. “I have just come, sir, and I do not know what you mean.” “Calculate you’d know if you wanted to. There is no doubt you belong to the same breed of cats, for there was never but one family by that name. By ----! it is a mighty apt one, too! I don’t see why Stanyan don’t come. If I was sheriff, I’d manage to be on hand once in my life.” Rob thought it good policy for him to withdraw from the company, but he had not taken half a dozen steps before the ’squire thundered to him: “You stop where you are, Rob Bayne. We are going up to your place as soon as the sheriff gets here, and we want you to go with us.” “What errand can you have to our home, sir?” demanded Little Hickory, with flashing eyes, having recovered his usual self-possession.