grand position which the violence itself would bestow. Are not
nine murders out of ten fashioned thus from conception into deed? "Oh
that my enemy were but before me face to face--none to part us!" says
the vindictive dreamer. Well, and what then? There, his imagination
halts--there he drops the sable curtain; he goes not on to say, "Why,
then another murder will be added to the long catalogue from Cain."
He palters with his deadly wish, and mutters, perhaps, at most, "Why,
then--come what may!"

Losely continued to gaze on the pale walls gleaming through the wintry
boughs, as the moon rose high and higher. And now out broke the
light from Darrell's lofty casement, and Losely smiled fiercely, and
muttered--hark! the very words--"And then! come what may!"

Hoofs are now heard on the hard road, and Jasper is joined by his
accomplice.

"Well!" said Jasper.

"Mount!" returned Cutts; "I have much to say as we ride."

"This will not do," resumed Cutts, as they sped fast down the lane;
"why, you never told me all the drawbacks. There are no less than four
men in the house--two servants besides the master and his secretary; and
one of those servants, the butler or valet, has firearms, and knows how
to use them."

"Pshaw!" said Jasper scoffingly; "is that all? Am I not a match for
four?"

"No, it is not all; you told me the master of the house was a retired
elderly man, and you mentioned his name. But you never told me that your
Mr. Darrell was the famous lawyer and Parliament man--a man about whom
the newspapers have been writing the last six months."

"What does that signify?"

"Signify! Just this, that there will be ten times more row about the
affair you propose than there would be if it concerned only a stupid
old country squire, and therefore ten times as much danger. Besides,
on principle I don't like to have anything to do with lawyers--a
cantankerous, spiteful set of fellows. And this Guy Darrell! Why,
General Jas., I have seen the man. He cross-examined me once when I was
a witness on a case of fraud, and turned me inside out with as much ease
as if I had been an old pincushion stuffed with bran. I think I see his
eye now, and I would as lief have a loaded pistol at my head as that eye
again fixed on mine."

"Pooh! You have brought a mask; and, besides, YOU need not see him; I
can face him alone."

"No, no; there might be murder! I never mix myself with things of that
kind, on principle; your plan will