“Oh! him! ” said Riderhood, who had craftily worked the schoolmaster into this corner, that he might again take note of his face under its evil possession. “I’d know him among a thousand.”

“Did you⁠—” Bradley tried to ask it quietly; but, do what he might with his voice, he could not subdue his face;⁠—“did you ever see them together?”

(The Rogue had got the clue in both hands now.)

“I see ’em together, t’otherest Governor, on the very day when Gaffer was towed ashore.”

Bradley could have hidden a reserved piece of information from the sharp eyes of a whole inquisitive class, but he could not veil from the eyes of the ignorant Riderhood the withheld question next in his breast. “You shall put it plain if you want it answered,” thought the Rogue, doggedly; “I ain’t a-going a wolunteering.”