has always had a reputation for the wild
music which his nose contrives, during his sleep, to keep up in his
neighborhood."

"It came from the opposite quarter, Munro, and was not unlike the
suppressed respiration of one who listens."

"Pshaw! that can not be. There is no chamber there. That is but the old
closet in which we store away lumber. You are quite too regardful of
your senses. They will keep us here all night, and the fact is, I wish
the business well over."

"Where does Lucy sleep?"

"In the off shed-room below. What of her?"

"Of her--oh nothing!" and Rivers paused musingly in the utterance of
this reply, which fell syllable by syllable from his lips. The landlord
proceeded:--

"Pass on, Rivers; pass on: or have you determined better about this
matter? Shall the youngster live? Indeed, I see not that his evidence,
even if he gives it, which I very much doubt, can do us much harm,
seeing that a few days more will put us out of the reach of judge and
jury alike."

"You would have made a prime counsellor and subtle disputant, Munro,
worthy of the Philadelphia lawyers," returned the other, in a sneer.
"You think only of one part of this subject, and have no passions, no
emotions: you can talk all day long on matters of feeling, without
showing any. Did I not say but now, that while that boy slept I could
not?"

"Are you sure that when he ceases to sleep the case will be any better?"

The answer to this inquiry was unheard, as the pair passed on to the
tenantless chamber. Watching their progress, and under the guidance of
the young maiden, who seemed endued with a courage and conduct worthy of
more experience and a stronger sex, the youth emerged from his place of
precarious and uncomfortable concealment, and descended to the lower
floor. A few moments sufficed to throw the saddle upon his steed,
without arousing the sable groom; and having brought him under the
shadow of a tree at some little distance from the house, he found no
further obstruction in the way of his safe and sudden flight. He had
fastened the door of his chamber on leaving it, with much more caution
than upon retiring for the night; and having withdrawn the key, which he
now hurled into the woods, he felt assured that, unless the assassins
had other than the common modes of entry, he should gain a little time
from the delay they would experience from this interruption; and this
interval, returning to the doorway, he employed in ackno