late, I would have cleared off all I
owe you, but indeed, indeed I have not been so successful of late, and
I'm again in difficulties. If you will only wait--"

"No," cried Gorman, "I'll not wait. I have waited long enough. How
long would you have me wait--eh? Moreover, I'm not hard on you. I show
you an easy way to make a good thing of it, and you're so
chicken-hearted that you're afraid to do it."

"It's such a mean thing to do," said Boone.

"Mean! Why, what do you call the style of carrying on business that you
started with seven years ago, and have practised more or less ever
since?"

"That is mean, too," said Boone; "I'm ashamed of it; sorry for it. It
was for a time successful no doubt, and I have actually paid off all my
creditors except yourself, but I don't think it the less mean on that
account, and I'm thoroughly ashamed of it."

There was a good deal of firmness in Boone's tone as he said this, and
his companion was silent for a few minutes.

"I have arranged," he said at last, "about your making over your
policies of insurance to me as security for the debt you owe me. You
won't have to pay them next half-year, I'll do that for you _if
necessary_." He laughed as he said this. "I have now come to ask you
to set the house alight, and have the plan carried out, and the whole
affair comfortably settled."

Gorman said this in an encouraging voice, assuming that his dupe was
ready to act.

"B-but it's awful to think of," said Boone; "suppose it's found out?"

"How can it be found out?"

"Well, I don't know. It's wonderful how crime is discovered," said
Boone despondingly; "besides, think of the risk we run of burning the
people who live above, as well as my two clerks who sleep in the room
below us; that would be murder, you know. I'm sure I have tried my very
best to get Miss Tippet to go from home for a short time, I've almost
let the cat out of the bag in my anxiety, but she won't take the hint."

"Oho!" exclaimed Gorman, with a laugh.

"Well, have you made the arrangements as I directed you last night?"

"Yes, I've got a lot of tarry oakum scattered about, and there is a pile
of shavings," he added, pointing to a corner of the room; "the only
thing I'm anxious about is that my young man Robert Roddy caught me
pouring turpentine on the walls and floor of the shop. I pretended that
it was water I had in the can, and that I was sprinkling it to lay the
dust before sweeping up. Rod