s Rand."

The other blew the flames beneath the pine knots. "There's Gaudylock."

"I except Gaudylock."

Tom rose from the brick hearth and dusted his knees. "And there's me."

Rand smiled down upon his old lieutenant. "Ah, yes, there's you,
Tom,--you and Vinie! Well, if we are fortunate, you shall come to me in
the spring. By then we'll know if we are conquerors and founders of
empire, or if we're simply to be hanged as traitors. If the fairer lot
is ours, you shall have your island, my good old Panza!"

"And if it's the other?" demanded Tom, with a wry face.

Rand gave his characteristic short laugh. "It shall not be the other.
The hemp is not planted that shall trouble us. There are no more
astrologers now that we are grown wise,--and still a man trusts in his
star! I trust in mine. Well, next week you'll open the office as usual,
and to all that come you'll state that I've gone, between courts, to
look at a purchase of land in Wood County. I'll bring that forgery case
to an end day after to-morrow, and by Monday Adam and I will be out of
Albemarle."

Mocket drew a long breath. "Monday! That's soon, but the sooner, I
reckon, the better. Sometimes just any delay is fatal. For all his
singing, I know that Adam is anxious--and he's weatherwise, is Adam!
There's something in the air. The papers have begun to talk, and
everywhere you turn there's the same damned curiosity about Aaron Burr
and New Orleans and Mexico and the Washita lands! Moreover, when a
man's as quiet as Mr. Jefferson is just now, I suspect that man. Best to
get quite out of reach of a countermine. You've gone too far not to go a
deal farther."

"Just so," agreed the other. "Many and many a league farther. Now, this
paper of directions. I'll go over it carefully with you, and then I'll
burn it. First, as to Roselands, the stock, and the servants. Joab and
Isham go with us, starting on horseback an hour behind the chaise."

"You take no maid for Mrs. Rand?"

"It cannot be managed. When we reach this island, I can doubtless
purchase a woman from Mr. Blennerhassett."

"Mrs. Rand does not know yet, does she, Lewis?"

"She does not know. She will not know until we are over the mountains
and return is impossible." He turned from the fire, walked the room
again, and spoke on as to himself. "When I tell her, there will be my
first battle, and the one battle that I dread! But I'll win it,--I'll
win because I _must_ win. She will suffer at first, but