He took advantage of the shock which these words produced upon Barton, and repeated to him the highwayman's declarations, with the inference they might bear if not satisfactorily explained. “I kept my promise,” he added, “and said nothing to any living soul of your request that I should carry money for you to Chester. Sandy Flash's information, therefore, must have come, either directly or indirectly, from you.” Barton had listened with open mouth and amazed eyes. “Why, the man is a devil!” he cried. “I, neither, never said a word of the matter to any living soul!” “Did you really send any money?” Gilbert asked. “That I did! I got it of Joel Ferris, and it happened he was bound for Chester, the very next day, on his own business; and so, instead of turning it over to me, he just paid it there, according to my directions. You'll understand, this is between ourselves?” He darted a sharp, suspicious glance at Miss Betsy Lavender, who gravely nodded her head. “The difficulty is not yet explained,” said Gilbert, “and perhaps you'll _now_ not deny my right to know something more of your first acquaintance with Sandy Flash?” “Have it then!” Barton exclaimed, desperately--“and much good may it do you! I thought his name was Fortune, as much as you did, till nine o'clock that night, when he put a pistol to my breast in the woods! If you think I'm colloguing with him, why did he rob me under threat of murder,--money, watch, and everything?” “Ah-ha!” said Miss Lavender, “and so that's the way your watch has been 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.”