gently! Do not get into a passion! May I ask what
you mean by traitor? Have I not served you faithfully?" interrogated the
attorney, with a smile of assurance.

"Served me faithfully!" sneered Jaspar. "You served me a cursed shabby
trick above Baton Rouge, at the wood-yard."

"My _dear_ sir, you wrong me! I did not injure you bodily, I trust?"

"No, sir! You have not that satisfaction."

"I rejoice to hear it. All that I did was for your benefit," returned
the attorney, complacently.

"Do you take me for an idiot?"

"By no means! You have shown your shrewdness too often to permit such a
supposition."

"What do you mean, then?" said Jaspar, a little mollified, in spite of
himself, by the conciliatory assurance of De Guy.

"Simply that your interest demanded your absence. I had not the time,
then, to convince you of the fact; and, I trust, you will pardon the
little subterfuge I adopted to promote your own views."

Jaspar opened his eyes, and fixed them in a broad stare upon big
companion.

"Explain yourself," said he.

"Everything has come out right,--has it not?"

"Yes."

"You are in quiet possession?"

"Yes."

"Then, sir, you may thank me for that little plan of mine at the
wood-yard. If I had not prevented you from continuing your journey, all
your hopes would have been blasted."

"I do not understand you."

"Where is your niece now?" asked the attorney, as a shade of anxiety
beclouded his brow.

"She was lost in the explosion," replied Jaspar, with a calmness with
which few persons can speak of the loss of near friends.

The attorney was particularly glad at this particular moment to
ascertain that this, as he had before suspected, was Jaspar's belief,
and that this belief had lulled him into security. He was not, however,
so candid as to give expression to his sentiments on the subject.

"Precisely so!" exclaimed the attorney, as though no shade of doubt or
anxiety had crossed him. "The Chalmetta exploded her boiler."

"Well!"

"Both Miss Dumont and her troublesome lover were lost,--were they not?"

"Yes."

"And, if you had continued on board, you would probably have shared
their fate."

"Yes; but do you mean to say you blowed the steamer up? asked Jaspar,
with a sneer.

"Exactly so!"

"Fool! do you expect me to believe such a miserable rigmarole as this?"

"I hope you will, for it is strictly true," returned the attorney,
convincingly.

Jaspar looked incredulous, and resort