eport of me favorably, and she might have half the money, and then I
would go away. And the maid was deceived, for she brought me fifty
dollars from your aunt, and kept thirty. She would not give even the
twenty until I had promised to go away without complaint. So I went
away, and stayed with a friend in Worcester. Since I came home I have
not seen or heard of any stranger in this neighborhood. So that it is
likely I have not been suspected or followed. And the letter was burned.
And at the first fair chance your Aunt will go to Europe, taking with
her her two dearest relatives. She called them Sonia Endicott and her
child Horace, and she would keep them with her while she lived. At the
last she sent you her love, though she could not understand some of the
things you were doing, but that was your own business. And she never
shed a tear, but kept smiling, and her smile was terrible."

He could believe that. Sonia might as well have lived in the glare of
Vesuvius as in the enlightened smile of Aunt Lois. The schemer was now
in her own toils, and only at the death of the brave old woman would she
know her failure. Oh, how sweet and great is even human justice!

"If I do not see you again, Martha," said Arthur as he kissed the dear
old mother farewell, "remember that I am happy, and that you made me
so."

THE GREEN AGAINST THE RED.

CHAPTER XII.

THE HATE OF HANNIBAL.

Owen Ledwith had a theory concerning the invasion of Ireland, which he
began to expound that winter. Since few know much more about the
military art than the firing of a shotgun, he won the scorn of all
except his daughter and Arthur Dillon. In order to demonstrate his
theory Ledwith was willing to desert journalism, to fit out a small
ship, and to sail into an Irish harbor from New York and back, without
asking leave from any government; if only the money were supplied by the
patriots to buy the ship and pay the sailors. His theory held that a
fleet of many ships might sail unquestioned from the unused harbors of
the American coast, and land one hundred thousand armed men in Ireland,
where a blow might be struck such as never had been yet in the good
cause. Military critics denied the possibility of such an invasion. He
would have liked to perform the feat with a single ship, to convince
them.

"I have a suspicion," he said one night to his daughter, "that this
young Dillon would give me five thousand dollars for the asking. He is a