ces separated.

"I won't stand idle," said Louis. "I agree with you that something must
be done at once. But I can't decide what it shall be on the spur of the
moment. Meet me here at this hour to-morrow night, and I will have some
plan ready for you."

"Very good. I will be here."

"And remember, don't be imprudent!"

"My costume ought to convince you that I am not anxious to be recognized
by anyone. I left such an ingenious alibi, that I defy anybody to
prove that I have been absent from my house at Vesinet. I even took the
precaution to travel in a third-class car. Well, good-night. I am going
to the inn."

Raoul went off after these words, apparently unconscious of having
aroused suspicion in the breast of his accomplice.

During his adventurous life, Clameran had transacted "business" with too
many scamps not to know the precise amount of confidence to place in a
man like Raoul.

The old adage, "Honor among thieves," seldom holds good after the
"stroke." There is always a quarrel over the division of the spoils.

This distrustful Clameran foresaw a thousand difficulties and
counter-plots to be guarded against in his dealings with Raoul.

"Why," he pondered, "did the villain assume this disguise? Why this
alibi at Paris? Can he be laying a trap for me? It is true that I have
a hold upon him; but then I am completely at his mercy. Those accursed
letters which I have written to him, while here, are so many proofs
against me. Can he be thinking of cutting loose from me, and making off
with all the profits of our enterprise?"

Louis never once during the night closed his eyes; but by daybreak he
had fully made up his mind how to act, and with feverish impatience
waited for evening to come, to communicate his views with Raoul.

His anxiety made him so restless that the unobserving Gaston finally
noticed it, and asked him what the matter was; if he was sick, or
troubled about anything.

At last evening came, and, at the appointed hour, Louis went to the
field where they had met the night previous, and found Raoul lying on
the grass smoking a fragrant cigar, as if he had no other object in life
except to blow little clouds of smoke in the air, and count the stars in
the clear sky above him.

"Well?" he carelessly said, as Louis approached, "have you decided upon
anything?"

"Yes. I have two projects, either of which would probably accomplish our
object."

"I am listening."

Louis was silently thoughtf