essing her for double your bribe."

"Your 'prospect!' Your prospect is about as deceptive as a fata
morgana! What have you been doing, I ask you again, toward realizing
this prospect and earning the money you have already received?"

"Fair and easy, my colonel! Don't let temper get the better of justice!
What have I been doing toward earning the money you have already paid
me? In the first place, I lost time and risked my liberty watching
around Hurricane Hall. Then, when I had identified the girl and the
room she slept in by seeing her at the window, I put three of my best
men in jeopardy to capture her. Then, when she, the witch, had captured
them, I sacrificed all my good looks, transmogrifying myself into a
frightful old field preacher, and went to the camp-meeting to watch,
among other things, for an opportunity of carrying her off. The
sorceress! she gave me no such opportunity. I succeeded in nothing
except in fooling the wiseacres and getting admitted to the prison of
my comrades, whom I furnished with instruments by which they made their
escape. Since that time we have had to lie low--yes, literally to lie
low--to keep out of sight, to burrow under ground; in a word, to live
in this cavern."

"And since which you have abandoned all intention of getting the girl
and earning the five thousand dollars," sneered Le Noir.

"Earning the remaining five thousand, you mean, colonel. The first five
thousand I consider I have already earned. It was the last five
thousand that I was to get when the girl should be disposed of."

"Well?"

"Well, I have not given up either the intention of earning the money or
the hope of getting the girl; in truth, I had rather lose the money
than the girl. I have been on the watch almost continually; but, though
I suppose she rides out frequently, I have not yet happened to hit upon
her in any of her excursions. At last, however, I have fixed upon a
plan for getting the witch into my power. I shall trust the execution
of my plan to no one but myself. But I must have time."

"Time! perdition, sir! delay in this matter is fraught with danger!
Listen, sir! How Warfield got possession of this girl or the knowledge
of her history I do not know, except that it was through the agency of
that accursed hag Nancy Grewell. But that he has her and that he knows
all about her is but too certain. That he has not at present legal
proof enough to establish her identity and her rights before a court