not do. There might be a much safer
chance of more swag in a very different sort of scheme. I hear that the
pictures in that ghostly long room I crept through are worth a mint
of money. Now, pictures of great value are well known, and there are
collectors abroad who would pay almost any price for some pictures, and
never ask where they came from; hide them for some years perhaps, and
not bring them forth till any tales that would hurt us had died away.
This would be safe, I say. If the pictures are small, no one in the
old house need be disturbed. I can learn from some of the trade what
pictures Darrell really has that would fetch a high price, and then look
out for customers abroad. This will take a little time, but be worth
waiting for."

"I will not wait," said Jasper, fiercely; "and you are a coward. I have
resolved that to-morrow night I will be in that man's room, and that man
shall be on his knees before me."

Cutts turned sharply round on his saddle, and by the aid of the
moonlight surveyed Losely's countenance. "Oh, I see," he said, "there
is more than robbery in your mind. You have some feeling of hate--of
vengeance; the man has injured you?"

"He has treated me as if I were a dog," said Jasper; "and a dog can
bite."

Cutts mused a few moments. "I have heard you talk at times about some
rich relation or connection on whom you had claims; Darrell is the man,
I suppose?"

"He is; and hark ye, Cutts, if you try to balk me here, I will wring
your neck off. And since I have told you so much, I will tell you this
much more--that I don't think there is the danger you count on; for
I don't mean to take Darrell's blood, and I believe he would not take
mine."

"But there may be a struggle-and then?"

"Ay, if so, and then--man to man," replied Jasper, mutteringly.

Nothing more was said, but both spurred on their horses to a quicker
pace. The sparks flashed from the hoofs. Now through the moonlight, now
under shade of the boughs, scoured on the riders--Losely's broad chest
and marked countenance, once beautiful, now fearful, formidably defined
even under the shadows--his comrade's unsubstantial figure and goblin
features flitting vague even under the moonlight.

The town they had left came in sight, and by this time Cutts had
resolved on the course his prudence suggested to him. The discovery
that, in the proposed enterprise, Losely had a personal feeling of
revenge to satisfy had sufficed to decide the accom