"I guess I will look into this myself," he said, stretching his long
limbs like an athlete. "I search that little wood of yours to-morrow.
It's a bit late, or I'd do it now."

"The wood has been searched," said the lawyer, rising also.

"Yes," drawled the American. "It's been searched by servants,
policemen, local policeman, and quite a lot of people;
and do you know I have a notion that nobody round here is likely
to have searched it at all."

"And what are you going to do with it?" asked Ashe.

"What I bet they haven't done," replied Cyprian. "I'm going
to climb a tree."

And with a quaint air of renewed cheerfulness he took himself
away at a rapid walk to his inn.

He appeared at daybreak next morning outside the Vane Arms with
all the air of one setting out on his travels in distant lands.
He had a field glass slung over his shoulder, and a very large
sheath knife buckled by a belt round his waist, and carried
with the cool bravado of the bowie knife of a cowboy.
But in spite of this backwoodsman's simplicity, or perhaps rather
because of it, he eyed with rising relish the picturesque plan
and sky line of the antiquated village, and especially the wooden
square of the old inn sign that hung over his head; a shield,
of which the charges seemed to him a mere medley of blue dolphins,