y of putting down these dangerous fellows,"
said Augustus, running his jewelled fingers through his curls.

"But why do you prefer to be away when the fun is going on?"

"There may be somebody's name in the list on whose behalf I might be
expected to intercede."

"Not old Villars!" exclaimed Lysander.

"Yes, old Villars!" laughed Augustus,--"if by that lively epithet you
mean to designate your venerable father-in-law."

"By George, though, Gus! ain't it almost too bad? What will folks say?"

"Little care I! Old and blind as he is, he is really one of the most
dangerous enemies to our cause. His influence is great with a certain
class, and he never misses an opportunity to denounce secession. That he
openly talks treason, and harbors and encourages traitors arming against
the confederate government, is cause sufficient for arresting him with
the others."

"Really," said Sprowl, chuckling as he thought of it, "'twill be better
for our plans to have him out of the way."

"Yes," said Bythewood; "the girls will need protectors, and your wife
will welcome you back again."

"And Virginia," added Sprowl, "will perhaps look a little more favorably
on a rich, handsome, influential fellow like you! I see! I see!"

There was another who saw too,--a sudden flash of light, as it were,
revealing to Penn all the heartless, scheming villany of the
friendly-seeming Augustus. He grasped the Stackridge pistol; his eyes,
glaring in the dark, were fixed in righteous fury on the elegant curly
head.

"If I am discovered, I will surely shoot him!" he said within himself.

"The old man," suggested Sprowl, "won't live long in jail."

"Very well," said Bythewood. "If the girls come to terms, why, we will
secure their everlasting gratitude by helping him out. If they won't, we
will merely promise to do everything we can for him--and do nothing."

"And the property?" said Lysander, somewhat anxiously.

"You shall have what you can get of it,--I don't care for the property!"
replied Bythewood, with haughty contempt. "I believe the old man,
foreseeing these troubles, has been converting his available means into
Ohio railroad stock. If so, there won't be much for you to lay hold of
until we have whipped the north."

"That we'll do fast enough," said Lysander, confidently.

"Well, I must be travelling," said Augustus.

"And I must be looking for that miserable schoolmaster."

So saying the young men arose from their cool seats on t