vous?"

"Quite safe, your honor, and as harmless as a lamb."

He and the sheriff then entered, and found the huge savage champing his
teeth and churning with his jaws, until a line of white froth encircled
his mouth, rendering him a hideous and fearful object to look at.

"What is this you want with me, you misbegotten villain," said
the squire. "Stand between the ruffian and me, fellows, in the
meantime--what is it, sirra?"

"Who's the robber now, Mr. Folliard?" he asked, with something, however,
of a doubtful triumph in his red glaring eye. "Your daughter had jewels
in a black cabinet, and I'd have secured the same jewels and your
daughter along with them, on a certain night, only for Reilly; and it
was very natural he should out-general me, which he did; but it was only
to get both for himself. Let him be searched at wanst, and, although I
don't say he has them, yet I'd give a hundred to one he has; she would
never carry them while he was with her."

The old squire, who would now, with peculiar pleasure, have acted in
the capacity of hangman in Reilly's case, had that unfortunate young man
been doomed to undergo the penalty of the law, and that no person in the
shape of Jack Ketch was forthcoming--he, we say--the squire--started
at once to the room where Reilly was secured, accompanied also by the
sheriff, and, after rushing in with a countenance inflamed by passion,
shouted out:

"Seize and examine that villain; he has robbed me--examine him
instantly: he has stolen the family jewels."

Reilly's countenance fell, for he knew his Fearful position; but
that which weighed heaviest upon his heart was a consciousness of the
misinterpretations which the world might put upon the motives of his
conduct in this elopement, imputing it to selfishness and a mercenary
spirit. When about to be searched, he said:

"You need not; I will not submit to the indignity of such an
examination. I have and hold the jewels for Miss Folliard, whose
individual property I believe they are; nay, I am certain of it, because
she told me so, and requested me to keep them For her. Let her be sent
for, and I shall hand them back to her at once, but to no other person
without violence."

"But she is not in a condition to receive them," replied the sheriff
(which was a fact); "I pledge my honor she, is not."

"Well, then, Mr. Sheriff, I place them in your hands; you can do with
them as you wish--that is, either return them to Miss Folliard