is evidence, and what not?" asked the man, not
unnaturally.

"Mr. Peacocke must be the judge," said the Doctor.

"I ain't going to agree to that," said the other. "Though he were to see
him dead, he might swear he hadn't, and not give me a red cent. Why ain't
I to be judge as well as he?"

"Because you can trust him, and he cannot in the least trust you," said
the Doctor. "You know well enough that if he were to see your brother
alive, or to see him dead, you would get the money. At any rate, you
have no other way of getting it but what we propose." To all this Robert
Lefroy at last assented.

The prospect before Mr. Peacocke for the next three months was certainly
very sad. He was to travel from Broughton to St. Louis, and possibly from
thence down into the wilds of Texas, in company with this man, whom he
thoroughly despised. Nothing could be more abominable to him than such an
association; but there was no other way in which the proposed plan could
be carried out. He was to pay Lefroy's expenses back to his own country,
and could only hope to keep the man true to his purpose by doing so from
day to day. Were he to give the man money, the man would at once
disappear. Here in England, and in their passage across the ocean, the
man might, in some degree, be amenable and obedient. But there was no
knowing to what he might have recourse when he should find himself nearer
to his country, and should feel that his companion was distant from his
own.

"You'll have to keep a close watch upon him," whispered the Doctor to his
friend. "I should not advise all this if I did not think you were a man
of strong nerve."

"I am not afraid," said the other; "but I doubt whether he may not be too
many for me. At any rate, I will try it. You will hear from me as I go
on."

And so they parted as dear friends part. The Doctor had, in truth, taken
the man altogether to his heart since all the circumstances of the story
had come home to him. And it need hardly be said that the other was aware
how deep a debt of gratitude he owed to the protector of his wife. Indeed
the very money that was to be paid to Robert Lefroy, if he earned it, was
advanced out of the Doctor's pocket. Mr. Peacocke's means were sufficient
for the expenses of the journey, but fell short when these thousand
dollars had to be provided.

CHAPTER XI.

THE BISHOP.

MR. PEACOCKE had been quite right in saying that the secret would at once
b