“'No,' said I, in the same easy way, 'by no manner o' means; and if it's myself you allude to, I ain't in the vocative case, sir. I 've got in that old leather pocket-book quite enough for present use.' “'Watch it well, then; put it under your head o' nights, that's all,' said he, hiccuping; 'and if you wake up some morning without it, don't say the fault was Oliver Trover's.' This was a-tellin' me his name, which I remembered the moment I heard it. “'You 'll take a brandy-smash or a glass of bitters with _me_ now, sir?' said I, hopin' to get something more out of him; but he wouldn't have it. He said, with a half-cunning leer, 'No more liquor, no more liquor, and no more secrets! If you was to treat me to all in the bar, you 'd get nothing more out of Noll Trover.'” “But what does the fellow mean by his insinuations about me?” said Layton, angrily. “I never knew him, never met him, never so much as heard of him!” “What does that signify if he has heard of _you_, and suspects you to know something about _him?_ He ain't all right, that's clear enough; but our country is so full of fellows like that, it ain't easy work tracking 'em.” Layton shrugged his shoulders with an indifference, as though to say the matter did not interest him; but Quackinboss rejoined quickly, “I 've a notion that it concerns us, sir. I heerd his inquiry about all the lines down South, and asking if any one knew a certain Harvey Winthrop, down at Norfolk.” “Winthrop--Winthrop? Where have I heard that name?” “In that book of your father's,--don't you remember it? It was he was mentioned as the guardian of that young girl, the daughter of him as was pisoned at Jersey.” “And is this man Trover in search of Winthrop?” asked Layton, eagerly. “Well, he's a-lookin' arter him, somehow, that's certain; for when somebody said, 'Oh, Harvey Winthrop ain't at Norfolk now,' he looked quite put out and amazed, and muttered something about having made all his journey for nothing.” “It is strange, indeed, that we should have the same destination, and stranger still would it be if we should be both on the same errand.” “Well,” said Quackin boss, after a long pause, “I've been a-rolling the log over and over, to see which way to cut it, and at last, I believe, I 've found the right side o' it. You and I must quarrel.” “What do you mean?” asked Layton, in astonishment. “I mean jest this. I must take up the suspicion that he has about _you_, and separate from you. It may be to join _him_. He's one of your Old- World sort, that's always so proud to be reckoned 'cute and smart, that you 've only to praise his legs to get his leggin's. We'll be as thick as thieves arter a week's travelling, and I 'll find out all that he's about. Trust Old Shaver, sir, to get to windward of small craft like that!” “I own to you frankly,” said Layton, “that I don't fancy using a rogue's weapons even against a rogue.”