an amount of resolute vigor that showed he was on the eve of some
hazardous enterprise. His toilet completed, he felt in his breastpocket,
to assure himself that something there was not missing; and then, taking
out his watch, he consulted the time. He had scarcely time to replace
it in his pocket, when the train entered a deep cutting between two high
banks of clay. It was, apparently, the spot he had waited for; and in
an instant he had unfastened the door by his latch-key, and stood on the
ledge outside. One more look within to assure himself that the other was
still asleep, and he closed the door, and locked it.

The night was dark as pitch, and a thin soft rain was falling, as Davis,
with a rapidity that showed this was no first essay in such a walk,
glided along from carriage to carriage, till he reached a heavy luggage
van, immediately beyond which was the _coupe_ of Mr. Davenport Dunn.

The brief prayer that good men utter ere they rush upon an enterprise
of deadly peril must have its representative in some shape or other with
those whose hearts are callous. Nature will have her due; and in that
short interval--the bridge between two worlds--the worst must surely
experience intense emotion. Whatever those of Davis, they were of the
briefest. In another second he was at the door of Dunn's carriage, his
eyes glaring beneath the drawn-down blind, where, by a narrow slip of
light, he could detect a figure busily employed in writing. So bent was
he on mastering every portion and detail of the arrangement within, that
he actually crept around till he reached the front windows, and could
plainly see the whole _coupe_ lighted up brilliantly with wax candles.

Surrounded with papers and letters and despatch-boxes, the man of
business labored away as though in his office, every appliance for
refreshment beside him. These Davis noted well, remarking the pistols
that hung between the windows, and a bell-pull quite close to the
writing-table. This latter passed through the roof of the carriage,
and was evidently intended to signalize the guard when wanted. Before
another minute had elapsed Davis had cut off this communication, and,
knotting the string outside, still suffered it to hang down within as
before.

All that _precaution_ could demand was now done; the remainder must be
decided by _action_. Noiselessly introducing the latch-key, Davis turned
the lock, and, opening the door, stepped inside. Dunn started as the
doo