correct you would be an accessory before the fact, and to shield
yourself and do your duty you would make a clean breast of it."

"I am beginning to be offended, Bob. I did not think you would trust me
so little!"

"Don't get angry, old man. Remember that only a few minutes ago you
warned me that you would cut me dead after the crime. We artistic
criminals must be prepared against every contingency."

"I did not think when I spoke. I did not mean it."

"Yes, you did, and I am not at all angry. Let it be understood then that
you will be at liberty to repeat the facts about this wager should your
conscience prick you. It will be best for me to expect and be prepared
for such action. But you have not asked what the second danger of
discovery is. Can you guess?"

"Not unless you mean as you suggested, your own confession."

"No, though that really makes a third chance. Yet it is so simple. Have
you noticed that we can hear a man snoring?"

"No!"

"Listen a moment! Do you not hear that? It is not exactly a snore, but
rather a troubled breathing. Now that man is in the third section from
us. Do you see the point?"

"I must confess that I would not make a detective."

"Why, my dear boy, if we can hear that fellow, why may not some one in
the next compartment be listening to our _tete-a-tete_?" Mr. Barnes
fairly glowed with admiration for the fellow's careful consideration of
every point.

"Oh, I guess not. Everybody is asleep."

"The common criminal from necessity takes chances like that, without
counting on them. I shall not. There is a possibility, however remote,
that some one, in Number Ten say, has overheard us. Again he may even be
a detective, and worse yet it might be your Mr. Barnes himself."

"Well, I must say if you prepare against such long odds as that you
deserve to escape detection!"

"That is just what I will do. But the odds are not so great as you
imagine. I read in an afternoon paper that Mr. Barnes had remained in
Boston in connection with properly securing his prisoner during the
day, but that he would leave for New York to-night. Of course the
newspaper may have been wrong. Then in saying "to-night" it may have
been inaccurate; but supposing that the statement were true, then there
were three trains upon which he might have started, one at seven
o'clock, one at eleven, and this one. One in three is not long odds."

"But even if he is on this train, there are ten coaches."

"Again you