ts. Seaton, however, persisted, and on that one of
the men got up and stood before the door, and drew his knife gently.

Seaton glanced his eyes round in search of a weapon, and turned pale.

"Do you mean to split on us, mate?" said one of the ruffians in front of
him.

"No, I don't. But I won't rob my benefactor. You shall kill me first."
And with that he darted to the fireplace, and in a moment the poker was
high in air, and the way he squared his shoulders and stood ready to hit
to the on, or cut to the off, was a caution.

"Come, drop that," said Butt, grimly; "and put up _your_ knife, Bob.
Can't a pal be out of a job, and yet not split on them that is in it!"

"Why should I split?" said Robert Penfold. "Has the law been a friend to
me? But I won't rob my benefactor--and his daughter."

"That is square enough," said Butt. "Why, pals, there are other cribs to
be cracked besides that old bloke's. Finish the ale, mate, and part
friends."

"If you will promise me to crack some other crib, and let that one
alone."

A sullen assent was given, and Seaton drank their healths, and walked
away. Butt followed him soon after, and affected to side with him, and
intimated that he himself was capable of not robbing a man's house who
had been good to him, or to a pal of his. Indeed this plausible person
said so much, and his sullen comrades had said so little, that Seaton,
rendered keen and anxious by love, invested his savings in a Colt's
revolver and ammunition.

He did not stop there; after the hint about the watch-dog, he would not
trust that faithful but too carnivorous animal; he brought his blankets
into the little tool-house, and lay there every night in a sort of dog's
sleep. This tool-house was erected in a little back garden, separated
from the lawn only by some young trees in single file. Now Miss
Rolleston's window looked out upon the lawn, so that Seaton's watchtower
was not many yards from it; then, as the tool-house was only lighted from
above, he bored a hole in the wooden structure, and through this he
watched, and slept, and watched. He used to sit studying theology by a
farthing rushlight till the lady's bedtime, and then he watched for her
shadow. If it appeared for a few moments on the blind, he gave a sigh of
content and went to sleep, but awaked every now and then to see that all
was well.

After a few nights, his alarms naturally ceased, but his love increased,
fed now from this new source, the