a good deal for that. I'm not so happy myself, father suffers so,
and the care of it weighs on me. You are all I have to make me glad, and
when you are troubled my heart goes down, down. But it's getting late,
dear. It's time we went home. Don't ask me what's in my mind, but dream
of riches. I'm sure they will come. You shall earn them with the three
thousand dollars you want and which I will give you."

"I shall earn them honestly," were the last words he said, as they rose
from the seat and began to move toward the gate. And the moon, coming
out from its temporary eclipse, shone on his clear-cut face as he said
this, but not on her bowed head and sidelong look. They were in the
shadow.

There was something else in the shadow. As they moved away and
disappeared in the darkness the long, slim figure of a man rose from
behind the bush I have mentioned. He had a sparkling eye and a
thin-lipped mouth, and he smiled very curiously as he looked after the
pair before turning himself about and going the other way.

It was not Fellows; it was his chosen confederate in the nefarious
scheme they had planned between them.

CHAPTER VIII

"_I did as you bid me_"

Another meeting in the old church, but this time at night. The
somberness of the surroundings was undiminished by any light. They were
in absolute darkness. Absolute darkness, but not absolute silence.
Noises strange and suggestive, but not of any human agency, whispered,
sighed, rattled, and grumbled from far away recesses. The snap of wood,
the gnawing of rats, the rustling of bat wings disturbed the ears of one
of the guilty pair, till his voice took on unnatural tones as he tried
to tell his story to his greedy companion. They were again astride the
bench, and their thin faces were so near that their breaths commingled
at times; yet Fellows felt at moments so doubtful of all human presence
that instinctively his hand would go groping out till it touched the
other's arm or breast, when it would fall back again satisfied. He was
in a state of absolute terror of the darkness, the oppressive air, the
ghostly sounds, and possibly of the image raised by his own conscience,
yet he hugged to himself the thought of secrecy which it all involved,
and never thought of yielding up his scheme or even shortening his tale,
so long as the other listened and gave his mind to the problem which
promised them thousands without the usual humdrum method of working for
them.