, does any of our bright blood flow in the veins of a ruffianly
housebreaker?" cried Trenchard, with a look of bewilderment. "I'll not
believe it."

"Others may, if you won't," muttered Jack, retiring. "Thank Heaven! I'm
not basely born."

"Now, mark me," said Jonathan, "and you'll find I don't do things by
halves. By your father, Sir Montacute Trenchard's will, you are
aware,--and, therefore, I need not repeat it, except for the special
purpose I have in view,--you are aware, I say, that, by this will, in
case your sister Aliva, died without issue, or, on the death of such
issue, the property reverts to Constance and _her_ issue."

"I hear," said Sir Rowland, moodily.

"And I," muttered Jack.

"Thames Darrell once destroyed," pursued Jonathan. "Constance--or,
rather, Mrs. Sheppard--becomes entitled to the estates; which
eventually--provided he escaped the gallows--would descend to her son."

"Ha!" exclaimed Jack, drawing in his breath, and leaning forward with
intense curiosity.

"Well, Sir?" gasped Sir Rowland.

"But this need give you no uneasiness," pursued Jonathan; "Mrs.
Sheppard, as I told you, is in Bedlam, an incurable maniac; while her
son is in the New Prison, whence he will only be removed to Newgate and
Tyburn."

"So you think," muttered Jack, between his ground teeth.

"To make your mind perfectly easy on the score of Mrs. Sheppard,"
continued Jonathan; "after we've disposed of Thames Darrell, I'll visit
her in Bedlam; and, as I understand I form one of her chief terrors,
I'll give her such a fright that I'll engage she shan't long survive
it."

"Devil!" muttered Jack, again grasping his pistol. But, feeling secure
of vengeance, he determined to abide his time.

"And now, having got rid of the minor obstacles," said Jonathan, "I'll
submit a plan for the removal of the main difficulty. Thames Darrell,
I've said, is at Mr. Wood's at Dollis Hill, wholly unsuspicious of any
designs against him, and, in fact, entirely ignorant of your being
acquainted with his return, or even of his existence. In this state, it
will be easy to draw him into a snare. To-morrow night--or rather
to-night, for we are fast verging on another day--I propose to lure him
out of the house by a stratagem which I am sure will prove infallible;
and, then, what so easy as to knock him on the head. To make sure work
of it, I'll superintend the job myself. Before midnight, I'll answer for
it, it shall be done. My janizaries sh