“Perhaps I wrong him; but I did suspect that all was not right. I can hardly tell what it was that first made me suspicious. It was his general appearance, rather than any particular thing. The handkerchief and the cigar expanded my vision a little. Dr. Bilks smokes my cigars, and I have spent hours in his office. I may have dropped my handkerchief there. At any rate, my theory was, that the doctor put the handkerchief and cigar into the boat.” “Why should he do so?” “I don’t know; I intend to find out. I have been his friend. I know of no reason why he should turn this thing upon me.” “But, Dick, who was the person on the island with Buckstone?” “Who was he,” repeated Dick, removing his cigar, and glancing at Hungerford. “Yes, who was he? That hasn’t come out yet.” “I don’t think you are as sharp as usual. Who was it?” “I certainly have no idea.” “It was Dr. Bilks.” “Impossible!” “Who else was it?” “I don’t know; but what possible motive could Dr. Bilks have had in hiring Buckstone to renew his marriage obligations?” “I don’t know; I can’t imagine.” This point was discussed, not very satisfactorily, till they reached what was called the “Settlement,” the alleged birthplace of Dr. Bilks’s baby. CHAPTER XVII. THE SETTLEMENT. The Settlement was a knot of small, poor houses, occupied by thriftless farmers, luckless fishermen, and laborers in the salt works. It was hardly half a mile from the sea shore, and the land was very sandy and barren. The locality looked like a suitable field for the operations of Mr. Eugene Hungerford, when he should commence, in earnest, his philanthropic endeavors to improve the material condition of the race, and thus reach and stimulate the moral and spiritual nature. But with the exception of the laborers in the salt works, who lived here for convenience, the people were most unpromising subjects for the missionary of human progress. There was work enough in the villages if they chose to do it; but they were mostly idlers and vagabonds, who took their subsistence by stealth from the sea and the air; who followed no steady occupation, and had no definite aims, any more than they had any definite principles. If the lobster-pots of a Port fisherman were meddled with; if an orchard on the turnpike was robbed; if timber, iron, or cordage mysteriously disappeared from the ship-yards, or from a vessel,--the mischief was promptly charged upon some of the vagabonds of the Settlement, and, nine times out of ten, justly so charged. Eugene Hungerford was not bent upon an expedition philanthropic on the present occasion. Nothing sublunary agitated him, when, as he turned his horse from the Mills Road, and actually penetrated the bounds of the Settlement, he discovered a chaise approaching them. The vehicle contained a lady and gentleman, and was drawn by a high-spirited black horse, familiar to Dick Birch, if not to Hungerford.