was standing creaked
sharply under its burden.

Murray Bradshaw started. He got up and opened softly all the doors
leading from the room, one after another, and looked out.

"I thought I heard a noise as if somebody was moving, Cynthia. It's just
as well to keep our own matters to ourselves."

"If you wait till this old house keeps still, Mr. Bradshaw, you might as
well wait till the river has run by. It's as full of rats and mice as an
old cheese is of mites. There's a hundred old rats in this house, and
that's what you hear."

["An' one old cat; that's what I hear." Third party.]

"I told you, Cynthia, I must be off on this business to-morrow. I want
to know that everything is safe before I go. And, besides, I have got
something to say to you that's important, very important, mind you."

He got up once more and opened every door softly and looked out. He
fixed his eye suspiciously on a large sofa at the other side of the room,
and went, looking half ashamed of his extreme precaution, and peeped
under it, to see if there was any one hidden thereto listen. Then he came
back and drew his chair close up to the table at which Miss Badlam had
seated herself. The conversation which followed was in a low tone, and a
portion of it must be given in another place in the words of the third
party. The beginning of it we are able to supply in this connection.

"Look here, Cynthia; you know what I am going for. It's all right, I
feel sure, for I have had private means of finding out. It's a sure
thing; but I must go once more to see that the other fellows don't try
any trick on us. You understand what is for my advantage is for yours,
and, if I go wrong, you go overboard with me. Now I must leave the--you
know--behind me. I can't leave it in the house or the office: they might
burn up. I won't have it about me when I am travelling. Draw your chair
a little more this way. Now listen."

["Indade I will," said the third party to herself. The reader will find
out in due time whether she listened to any purpose or not.]

In the mean time Myrtle, who for some reason was rather nervous and
restless, had found a pair of half-finished slippers which she had left
behind her. The color came into her cheeks when she remembered the state
of mind she was in when she was working on them for the Rev. Mr. Stoker.
She recollected Master Gridley's mistake about their destination, and
determined to follow the hint he had g