ood
morning's work. You shall have them both for a hundred."

"Thanks for the liberality," said Linton, laughing. "You bought them for
fifty."

"I know that very well; but remember, you were a very depreciated
stock at that time. Now, you are at a premium. I hear you have been a
considerable winner from our friend here."

"Then you are misinformed. I have won less than the others,--far less
than I might have done. The fact is, Hoare, I have been playing a back
game,--what jockeys call, holding my stride."

"Well, take care you don't wait too long," said Hoare, sententiously.

"How do you mean?" said Linton, sitting up, and showing more animation
than he had exhibited before.

"You have your secret--I have mine," replied Hoare, dryly, as he
replaced the bills in his pocket-book and clasped it.

"What if we exchange prisoners, Hoare?"

"It would be like most of your compacts, Mr. Linton, all the odds in
your own favor."

"I doubt whether any man makes such compacts with _you_," replied
Linton; "but why higgle this way? 'Remember,' as Peacham says, 'that we
could hang one another;' and there is an ugly adage about what happens
when people such as you and I 'fall out.'"

"So there is; and, strange enough, I was just thinking of it. Come, what
is _your_ secret?"

"Read that," said Linton, placing Enrique's letter in his hand, while he
sat down, directly in front, to watch the effect it might produce.

Hoare read slowly and attentively; some passages he re-read three or
four times; and then, laying down the letter, he seemed to reflect on
its contents.

"You scarcely thought what kind of company our friend used to keep
formerly?" asked Linton, sneeringly.

"I knew all about that tolerably well. I was rather puzzling myself a
little about this Pedro Rica; that same trick of capturing the slavers,
and then selling the slaves, is worthy of one I could mention, not to
speak of the double treachery of informing against his comrades, and
sending the English frigate after them."

"A deep hand he must be," remarked Linton, coolly.

"A very deep one; but what is Cashel likely to do here?"

"Nothing; he has no clew whatever to the business; the letter itself he
had not time to read through, when he dropped it, and--"

"I understand--perfectly. This accounts for his agitation. Well, I must
say, _my_ secret is the better of the two, and, as usual, you have made
a good bargain."

"Not better than _your_ morning's