“Now's the time! If we only git the light of a farden-candle out o' him, it'll do me a mortal heap o' good; for with all this rakin' and scrapin' for nothin', I'm like a heart pantin' after the water-brooks, though a mouth would be more like it, to my thinkin', when a body's so awful dry as that comes to!” The two thereupon took the foot-path down through the frozen fields and the dreary timber of the creek-side, to the Barton farm-house. As they approached the barn, they saw Alfred Barton sitting on a pile of straw and watching Giles, who was threshing wheat. He seemed a little surprised at their appearance; but as Gilbert and he had not met since their interview in the corn-field before the former's departure for Chester, he had no special cause for embarrassment. “Come into the house,” he said, leading the way. “No,” Gilbert answered, “I came here to speak with you privately. Will you walk down the lane?” “No objection, of course,” said Barton, looking from Gilbert to Miss Lavender, with a mixture of curiosity and uneasiness. “Good news, I hope; got hold of Sandy's tracks, at last?” “One of them.” “Ah, you don't say so! Where?” “Here!” Gilbert stopped and faced Barton. They were below the barn, and out of Giles's hearing. “Barton,” he resumed, “you know what interest I have in the arrest of that man, and you won't deny my right to demand of you an account of your dealings with him. When did you first make his acquaintance?” “I've told you that, already; the matter has been fully talked over between us,” Barton answered, in a petulant tone. “It has not been fully talked over. I require to know, first of all, precisely when, and under what circumstances, you and Sandy Flash came together. There is more to come, so let us begin at the beginning.” “Damme, Gilbert, _you_ were there, and saw as much as I did. How could I know who the cursed black-whiskered fellow was?” “But you found it out,” Gilbert persisted, “and the manner of your finding it out must be explained.” Barton assumed a bold, insolent manner. “I don't see as that follows,” he said. “It has nothing in the world to do with his robbery of you; and as for Sandy Flash, I wish to the Lord you'd get hold of him, yourself, instead of trying to make me accountable for his comings and goings!” “He's tryin' to fly off the handle,” Miss Lavender remarked. “I'd drop that part o' the business a bit, if I was you, and come to the t'other proof.” “What the devil have _you_ to do here?” asked Barton. “Miss Betsy is here because I asked her,” Gilbert said. “Because all that passes between us may have to be repeated in a court of justice, and two witnesses are better than one!”