r, how will you be better off?--the letters are gone;
and Poole has you in his power if you threaten him again. Now, hark
you; you did not murder the Italian who was found stabbed in the fields
yonder a week ago; L100 reward for the murderer?"

"I--no. How coldly you ask! I have hit hard in fair fight;
murdered--never. If ever I take to that, I shall begin with Poole."

"But I tell you, Jasper, that you are suspected of that murder; that you
will be accused of that murder; and if I had not thus fortunately met
you, for that murder you would be tried and hanged."

"Are you serious? Who could accuse me?"

"Those who know that you are not guilty--those who could make you appear
so--the villains with whom you horde, and drink and brawl! Have I ever
been wrong in my warnings yet?"

"This is too horrible," faltered Losely, thinking not of the conspiracy
against his life, but of her prescience in detecting it. "It must be
witchcraft, and nothing else. How could you learn what you tell me?"

"That is my affair; enough for you that I am right. Go no more to those
black haunts; they are even now full of snares and pitfalls for you.
Leave London, and you are safe. Trust to me."

"And where shall I go?"

"Look you, Jasper; you have worn out this old world no refuge for you
but the new. Whither went your father, thither go you. Consent, and
you shall not want. You cannot discover Sophy. You have failed in all
attempts on Darrell's purse. But agree to sail to Australasia, and
I will engage to you an income larger than you say you extorted from
Poole, to be spent in those safer shores."

"And you will go with me, I suppose," said Losely, with ungracious
sullenness.

"Go with you, as you please. Be where you are--yes." The ruffian bounded
with rage and loathing.

"Woman, cross me no more, or I shall be goaded into--"

"Into killing me--you dare not! Meet my eye if you can--you dare not!
Harm me, yea a hair of my head, and your moments are numbered!--your
doom sealed. Be we two together in a desert--not a human eye to see the
deed--not a human ear to receive my groan, and still I should stand by
your side unharmed. I, who have returned the wrongs received from you,
by vigilant, untiring benefits--I, who have saved you from so many
enemies, and so many dangers--I, who, now when all the rest of earth
shun you--when all other resource fails-I, who now say to you, 'Share my
income, but be honest!' I receive injury from that ha