"And from whom?"
Instead of replying, the man leaned back against the wall of the hut and looked at his interlocutor in silence.
"Are we going to join hands over this business?" he cried, at last, "or are you thinking of pushing your way on alone after you have got from me all that I know?"
The question took Mr. Byrd by surprise.
He had not thought of the future. He was as yet too much disturbed by his memories of the past. To hide his discomfiture, he began to pace the floor, an operation which his thoroughly wet condition certainly made advisable.
"I have no wish to rob you of any glory you may hope to reap from the success of the plot you have carried on here to-day," he presently declared, with some bitterness; "but if this Craik Mansell is guilty, I suppose it is my duty to help you in the collection of all suitable and proper evidence against him."
"Then," said the other, who had been watching him with rather an anxious eye, "let us to work." And, sitting down on the table, he motioned to Mr. Byrd to take a seat upon the block at his side.
But the latter kept up his walk.
Hickory surveyed him for a moment in silence, then he said:
"You must have something against this young man, or you wouldn't be here. What is it? What first set you thinking about Craik Mansell?"