o we should
have to both imprison and murder him in the end, which would be much worse
than to put him out of the way at once, let alone the risk attending the
plan you suggest."

"Right."

"You see, then, we will have some one on whom to lay the theft?"

"Exactly! Huzza for Lieutenant Duffel!"

"Silence!"

"I beg pardon."

"Remember the time, next Thursday night, and don't fail to be at the 'dark
passage' in time."

"We'll be there, don't fear; and the thing shall be done up handsomely."

"But what's to be done with the feller's body when he's dead, I'd like to
know?" interposed Dick.

"Sure enough," replied Duffel; "I had forgotten to instruct you on that
point. Take him to the sink in that black swamp, and be sure to make him
_stay under_. We want no tell-tale carcasses showing themselves."

"You need have no fears on that point; once there and he'll never see the
light again, nor the light him."

"I will now leave you to make such arrangements between yourselves as may
be necessary for the work before you. Leave nothing incomplete, and be
punctual to the very minute in every instance."

With this parting injunction, Duffel left his villainous companions, who
began at once to prepare themselves for the dastardly business their
superior had allotted to them in his schemes of rascality and black-hearted
crime. This was Monday, in the afternoon, and consequently, but three days
until Hadley was to be waylaid and slain, and immediately afterward
somebody's horses stolen and run off, the crime of stealing which was to be
laid upon the murdered man. This was a plot worthy of the wretch who
conceived it, and, with the aid of villains as unscrupulous as himself, was
about to be put in execution.

From the moment the command of the "_Order of the League of Independents_"
(it ought have been named the Order of the League of Murderers and
Horse-Thieves) was vested in him, during the captain's absence, he had
resolved to make the most of his time and authority to bring all his plans
to a crisis and an issue. Hadley was to be disposed of; Mandeville was to
be blinded, his daughter, through him, forced to wed the rascal, or,
failing in this, _she_ was to be forced into measures, by fair means or
foul, of which hereafter.

* * * * *

Friday morning was ushered in amid clouds and storm. The heavens were
shrouded in a pall of darkness and the rain came down in torrents. Mr.
Mandevill