"Well, Captain Chinks, did you find the man who paid that five hundred dollar bill to Colonel Montague?" asked Squire Gilfilian, as he seated himself in the standing-room, opposite his client.
"I didn't look for him," replied the captain, studying the seams in the deck.
"I thought that was what you went down there for. You told me that, in your opinion, Bobtail here had sent some one down to Bar Harbor to buy this boat with the money taken from the letter," added the squire, whose "fine judicial mind" had not yet grasped the truth. "I don't see any other way that this bill could have got to Bar Harbor."
"Mr. Hines and I saw the man that received the bill for the boat," added the deputy sheriff.
Captain Chinks looked up at the speaker, as if to entreat him to deal gently.
"Well, who gave him the bill?" demanded the squire, impatiently.
"The captain can tell you."
"How can he tell me? He didn't see the man. Why didn't you see him, captain?"
"I had something else to think of," replied the culprit, with the most woe-begone expression that ever darkened the face of man. "It's no use for me to try to beat to windward any more. I gave him the bill myself, Squire Gilfilian. That's the truth."
"You!" gasped the lawyer.