free, if
they had to break the cab into kindling-wood while they were doing it."

MacWilliams changed his seat to the one opposite his prisoner, and
peered up and down the street in some anxiety.

"I suppose you know there's an answer to that, don't you?" he asked.
"Well, the answer is, that if you nod your head once, you lose the top
of it."

Burke gave an exclamation of disgust, and gazed at his zealous guardian
with an expression of trepidation and unconcealed disapproval. "You're
not armed, are you?" he asked.

MacWilliams nodded. "Why not?" he said; "these are rather heavy
weather times, just at present, thanks to you and your friends. Why,
you seem rather afraid of fire-arms," he added, with the intolerance of
youth.

The Irish-American touched the young man on the knee, and lifted his
hat. "My son," he said, "when your hair is as gray as that, and you
have been through six campaigns, you'll be brave enough to own that
you're afraid of fire-arms, too."

X

Clay and Langham left MacWilliams and Stuart to look after their
prisoner, and returned to the Palms, where they dined in state, and
made no reference, while the women were present, to the events of the
day.

The moon rose late that night, and as Hope watched it, from where she
sat at the dinner-table facing the open windows, she saw the figure of
a man standing outlined in silhouette upon the edge of the cliff. He
was dressed in the uniform of a sailor, and the moonlight played along
the barrel of a rifle upon which he leaned, motionless and menacing,
like a sentry on a rampart.

Hope opened her lips to speak, and then closed them again, and smiled
with pleasurable excitement. A moment later King, who sat on her
right, called one of the servants to his side and whispered some
instructions, pointing meanwhile at the wine upon the table. And a
minute after, Hope saw the white figure of the servant cross the garden
and approach the sentinel. She saw the sentry fling his gun sharply to
his hip, and then, after a moment's parley, toss it up to his shoulder
and disappear from sight among the plants of the garden.

The men did not leave the table with the ladies, as was their custom,
but remained in the dining-room, and drew their chairs closer together.

Mr. Langham would not believe that the downfall of the Government was
as imminent as the others believed it to be. It was only after much
argument, and with great reluctance, that he had e