"I suppose, then," said the officer, "that your guiding us so willingly to his cottage is in part payment of this unsettled debt?"
"Maybe it is," replied the trooper grimly.
"They say," continued the other, "that there is some mystery about the man; that somehow nobody can catch him. Like an eel he has slipped through our fellows' fingers and disappeared more than once, when they thought they had him quite safe.