"For the benefit of your health, I presume," asked modest Frank.

"My good friend," replied the stranger, "I wish to make an observation.
It is possible, I say, that I may remain here for some months; now,
pray, attend, and mark me--whenever you and I chance, on any future
occasion, to meet, it is to be understood between us that you are to
answer me in anything I ask, which you know, and I to answer you in
nothing, unless I wish it."

"Thank you, sir," he replied, with a low and not ungraceful bow; "that's
a compliment all to the one side, like Clogher."*

* The proverb is pretty general throughout Tyrone. The town
of Clogher consists of only a single string of houses.

"Very well," returned the stranger; "I have something to add, in order
to make this arrangement more palatable to you."

"Hold, sir," replied the other; "before you proceed further, you must
understand me. I shall pledge myself under no terms--and I care not what
they may be--to answer any question that may throw light upon my own
personal identity, or past history."

"That will not be necessary," replied the stranger.

"What do you mean, sir," asked Fenton, starting; "do you mean to hint
that you know me?"

"Nonsense," said the other; "how could I know a man whom I never saw