There  was no getting around it--Pete Deveaux was clever, if he were a rascal.  This our friends had to admit to themselves, despite their dislike of the fellow.  His methods of getting the best of them seemed to have no limit; and yet thus far they had been able to cling, by the hardest kind of work, right at his heels.  This last trick was more honest strategy than Deveaux had exhibited before, and they could therefore admire it in that sense.  They hoped that from now on his maneuvers might be as free from maliciousness.