"But, suppose," said Dalhousie, after he had read the directions, "while
I am digging, you should close the doors upon me?"

"Honor!" said Jaspar, laying his hand upon the place where the heart
belonged, with an amusing contortion of the facial muscles.

"I have not the highest confidence in _your_ honor."

"Perhaps not; but I can suggest a better protection. Have you any person
at hand upon whose faith you can rely?"

"None but my wife," replied Dalhousie, carelessly, for the mortifying
fact seemed laden with nothing of bitterness.

"So much the better. She will be true. Station her at the door, and, if
she sees me approach, you can be sure to be on the outside when I close
the door."

Jaspar's air of sincerity did as much to assure him as the fitness of
the plan suggested, and the overseer determined to adopt it.

Briefly he narrated to his wife--though with some variations and
concealments, for he knew she would not endorse all his operations--the
history of the affair, and the good fortune that awaited him; and
requested her attendance at the jail, to stand sentry over the gloomy
den, while he dug up the treasure.

De Guy's patience was nearly exhausted when the overseer and his wife
made their appearance. He had only time to conceal himself in a
cane-field, when the doomed couple reached the jail. Dalhousie walked
twice round it, before he ventured to enter the building. Stationing his
wife at the door, he proceeded to measure out the locality of the
supposed treasure.

De Guy watched them. For half an hour he remained quiet, when the
vigilance of the lady-sentinel began to abate, and, by the exercise of
extreme caution, he succeeded in reaching, undiscovered, the rear of the
jail. Cat-like, he crept to the corner, and listened. He could hear
their conversation. Carefully he stole round to the corner nearest to
the door. For an instant the wife had left her station, to observe the
progress of her husband's labor. The time had come, and the attorney was
not the man to let the favorable moment pass unimproved. With a rapidity
which seemed utterly incompatible with his rotund corporation, he flew
to the door, and sprung the trap upon the hapless pair, in the midst of
their vision of wealth and happiness.

Carefully locking the doors of the dungeon, he walked back to the
mansion as coolly as though he had only impounded his neighbor's cow.
Entering the library, he found Jaspar impatiently waiting his return