believe?"

"Yes, tolerably so."

"Well, I want you to bring Tom here in about half an hour; and do the job
up nicely, too."

"I'll try, sir."

"You must _do_ it. Be quick; it is going to rain soon, and we must get him
away before the tracks will show; but don't so much as disturb the sleeping
grasshoppers by your noise."

"All right."

"Go now, and be here again in the shortest possible time. Bill and I will
arrange matters for future operations while you are gone."

Dick hastened away to do the bidding of his master, and Duffel communicated
to Bill the following piece of intelligence:

"I was very much in hopes the whole of our plan for to-night would succeed,
though I heard that in the evening which caused me to have misgivings on
the subject. I learned that Hadley received intelligence that his mother
and uncle were both sick and not expected to recover.--They live in
Philadelphia: the uncle, his mother's brother, a bachelor, by the way, with
whom she is living, is reputed wealthy, and, it is said, has willed his
property to young Hadley. The news of these events was brought to him
yesterday, and he made immediate preparations to go east, but did not
expect to get off until this morning. I presume, however, he must have