"Well I expect I have been many a long year a hunter, as
well as other things, and yet, dang me if I ever calculated
the game would come to me. It always costs me a purty
good chase in the woods."

"How the fellow beats about the bush, to find what game
we are driving at," observed Middlemore, in an under
tone, to his companion.

"Let the Yankee alone for that," returned he, whom our
readers have doubtless recognized for Henry Grantham; "I
will match his cunning against your punning any day."

"The truth is, he is FISHING to discover our motive for
being here, and to find out if we are in any way connected
with the disappearance of his rifles."

During this conversation APART, the Yankee had carelessly
approached his canoe, and was affecting to make some
alteration in the disposition of the sail. The officers,
the younger especially, keeping a sharp look out upon
his movements, followed at some little distance, until
they, at length, stood on the extreme verge of the sands.
Their near approach seemed to render Desborough impatient:

"I expect, officers," he said, with a hastiness that, at
any other moment, would have called down immediate reproof,
if not chastisement, "you will only be losin' time here
for nothin'--About a mile beyond Hartley's there'll be
plenty of pattridges at this hour, and I am jist goin'