y grave; at last he said, "If
you get over the next twelve hours, I think you may."

"How many are dead?" inquired Tommy.

"I don't know; you are the first that I have visited; it's a shocking
business."

"I've been thinking that we were very wrong," said Tommy; "we ought not
to have driven the poor woman to desperation. If I do recover, her
death will be on my conscience."

"I'm glad to hear you say that, Tommy," replied I; "but the doctor says
you must remain very quiet, and therefore I shall leave you. Good-bye;
I will see you again this evening."

"Good-bye, sir, and I hope you'll forgive me for not having been so
respectful as I should have been."

"Yes, yes, Tommy; we have been friends too long for that."

Mammy Crissobella's dose had certainly put an end to all Tommy's spirit
of resistance. All the others who had been victims to our plot were
kept in the dark as to the real facts, and, as soon as they were able to
be moved, paid their bills to Leila, and left the house.

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.

On the third day, Tommy Dott and Mr Maxwell went on board, imagining
that they had had a miraculous escape, and the two old planters and I
were left the only inmates of the house to welcome the resurrection of
Mammy Crissobella, who was again as busy as before. She said to me,
"Massy Keene, I really under great obligation to you; suppose you want
two, three hundred, five hundred pounds, very much at your service;
never mind pay back."

I replied that I did not want any money, and was equally obliged to her.
But the affair had already made a great noise. It was at first really
supposed that Mammy Crissobella had poisoned them as well as herself,
and I was obliged to refute it, or the authorities would have taken it
up. As the admiral sent down to make inquiries, I went up to him and
told him the whole story; I was obliged to do the same to the governor,
and it was the occasion of great mirth all over the island, and no small
mortification to those who had been the sufferers. Mammy Crissobella
was complimented very much upon her successful stratagem to clear her
house, and she was quite in ecstasies at the renown that she obtained.

One day the admiral sent for me, and said--"Keene, I can wait no longer
the arrival of another vessel. I must send you to England with
despatches: you must sail to-morrow morning."

As I was all ready, I took my leave of the admiral, who promised me
every assistance if o