were kept. To this the men had access at any time, and always
resorted when in need of weapons or ammunition. With this brief
explanation, the reader will be able to understand how things were managed
by this band of freebooters, as, also, some of the succeeding portions of
this story.

As we said, Bill left the cave and went out to see Dick, who was stationed
along the passage-way in the bank of the stream, to impart to him the
success of their operations thus far, and to finish the details of some of
their arrangements for the future. The two worthies remained in
conversation some two or three hours awaiting the return of the sentinel;
and then Bill, becoming impatient, left the cave in Dick's care, and
hastened away to get his key made. A portion of their conversation while
together will be given hereafter, when a third party will be introduced as
a listener; a party who at _once_ became most deeply interested in their
plans, and caught every word with the greatest eagerness, and with such
emotions as may be supposed to agitate a human bosom only in cases where
life and death are pending in the balances.

Will the contest be villain for villain? and life against life? We shall
see! What, in the meantime, will become of the so recently hopeful Eveline?
Will she be lost in the strife where murderer wages war against his brother
murderer? Let us not anticipate.

Before proceeding with the direct thread of our narrative, we will again
glance at the action of the "Anti-Horse-Thief League," organized, as
already intimated, to put down the bold land-pirates, whose depredations
upon property had become so unbearable the honest portion of community had
no alternative left but to "become a law unto themselves," and by direct
and combined action clear the country of the host of desperadoes with which
it had become infested and overrun. Many of our aged readers will remember
those exciting times; perhaps some of them can call to mind the very hour
when _they_ were forced to take their rifles in hand and go forth to defend
their property.

On the very night that Bill and Dick made their ineffectual attempt on
'Squire Williams' horses, two others of the "Horse Thief League," as the
gang of thieves were christened by the honest portion of community, went on
a similar excursion into a different neighborhood, some five or six miles
away, and met with a still warmer reception from the farmer whose stock
they endeavored to remove w