ack to the hall with me, and let us consult together."

I followed him back to the house, and he sprang from his saddle, had
a shutter unhasped in a twinkling, knowing evidently the secret of
it, and we were inside, standing amongst the litter of casks and
cases in the great silent desertion of the hall of Locust Creek.
Then he grasped me hard by both hands, and cried out, "Harry, Harry
Wingfield, come to thee I must, for, convict though thou be, thou
art a man with a head packed with wit, and Ralph Drake is half the
time in his cups, and Parson Downs riding his own will at such a
hard gallop that 'twill surprise me not if he leave his head behind,
and as for Dick and Nick Barry, and Captain Dickson, and--and
Major Robert Beverly, and all the others, what is it to them about
this one matter which is more to me than the whole damned hell-broth?"

"You mean?" I said, and pointed to the litter on the hall floor.

"Yes," and then, with a great show of passion, "My God, Harry
Wingfield, why, why did we gentlemen and cavaliers of Virginia allow
a woman to be mixed in this matter? If, if--these goods be
traced to her--"

"And, faith, and I see no reason why they should not be, with a
whole colony in the secret of it," I said, coldly.

"Nay, none but me and Nick and Dick Barry, and the parson since
yesterday, and Major Beverly and Capt. Noel Jaynes and you and the
captain and sailors on the Golden Horn, who value their own necks.
As God is my witness, none beside, Harry."

I could scarcely help laughing at the length of the list and the
innocence of the lad. "Her sister Catherine, Sir Humphrey," said I.

"Hath she told her, Harry?"

"And the captain of the Earl of Fairfax."

"The governor's ship? Well, then, let us go through Jamestown
proclaiming it with a horn," he gasped out, and made more of the two
last than his own long list.

"Nay, the two last are as safe as we," said I. "Mistress Catherine
holds her sister dearer than herself, and as for the captain of the
governor's ship, lock a man's tongue with the key of his own
interest if you wish it not to wag. But these goods must be moved
from here."

"That is what I well know, Harry," he said, eagerly. "All night did
I toss and study the matter. But where?"

"Not in any place on Madam Cavendish's plantation," I said, and did
not say, as I might have, for 'twas the truth, that I had also
tossed and studied, but as yet to no result.

"No, nor on mine, though I