have the police at hand ready to capture
him."

"I believe we shall," the old gentleman cried, rubbing his hands
together in delight--"I believe we shall. And a nice example we'll make
of the rascals. Nikola thinks he can beat me; I'll show him how mistaken
he is!"

And for some time the old gentleman continued in this strain,
confidently believing that he would have his daughter with him again by
the time morning came. Nor was I far behind him in confidence. Since
Nikola had not spirited her out of the country my plot seemed the one of
all others to enable us to regain possession of her; and not only that,
but we hoped it would give us an opportunity of punishing those who had
so schemed against her. Suddenly an idea was born in my brain, and
instantly I acted on it.

"Mr. Wetherell," I said, "supposing, when your daughter is safe again, I
presume so far as once more to offer myself for your son-in-law, what
will you say?"

"What will I say?" he cried. "Why, I will tell you that you shall have
her, my boy, with ten thousand blessings on your head. I know you now;
and since I've treated you so badly, and you've taken such a noble
revenge, why, I'll make it up to you, or my name's not Wetherell. But we
won't talk any more about that till we have got possession of her; we
have other and more important things to think of. What time ought we to
start to-night?"

"The letter fixes the meeting for ten o'clock; we had better be in the
boat by half-past nine. In the meantime I should advise you to take a
little rest. By the way, do you think your footman realizes that you
have the money?"

"He ought to, for he carried it up to this room for me; and, what's
more, he has applied for a holiday this afternoon."

"That's to carry the information. Very good; everything is working
excellently. Now I'm off to rest for a little while."

"I'll follow your example. In the meantime I'll give orders for an early
dinner."

We dined at seven o'clock sharp, and at half-past eight I went off to my
room to don my disguise; then, bidding the Marquis good-bye--much to the
young gentleman's disgust, for he was most anxious to accompany us--I
slipped quietly out of my window, crossed the garden--I hoped
unobserved--and then went down to the harbour side, where the boat I had
chartered was waiting for me. A quarter of an hour later Wetherell's
carriage drove up, and on seeing it I went across and opened the door.
My disguise was so perf