"How far beyond was it?"
"About five or six miles, I should think."
"Did you learn any of the particulars?"
"Why, yes, pretty much all of them, I think."
"I know pretty much everybody in that region, and it may be that it was some of my friends from whom the horse was stolen. What was the owner's name, if you heard it?"
"Mandeville, I think; yes, Mandeville."
"Mandeville! I know him well. Has he any idea who took the horse?"
"I think he suspects some one for the theft—a young man that had been in the neighborhood, but disappeared the same night of the theft, and no one knew where he had gone."
"In the neighborhood," repeated Hadley, musingly, as if thinking aloud. "It must have been the stranger; and yet I thought he was gone some time ago."
"I don't think it was a stranger; they told us his name, but I do not know whether I can call it to mind or not. Let me see, I think it was Hardy or Hartly, or some such name."