e not completed my plan of operations. What I am to do, I
know not yet exactly. If I could break off the match between her and my
brother, she might probably, through the influence of her parents
and other causes, he persuaded into a reluctant marriage with Harry
Woodward; time, however, will tell, and I must only work my way through
the difficulty as well as I can. I will now leave you, and I don't think
I shall be able to see you again for a week to come."

"Before you go let me ask if you know a vagabond called Ranting Rody,
who goes about through the country living no one knows how?"

"No, I do not know him; what is he?"

"He's nothing except a paramour of Caterine Collins's, who, you know,
is a rival of ours; nobody here knows anything about him, whilst he, it
appears, knows every one and everything."

"He would make a good conjurer," replied Woodward, smiling.

"If the fellow could be depended on," replied the other, "he might
be useful; in fact, I am of opinion that if he wished he could trace
_Shawn-na-Middogue's_ haunts. The scoundrel attempted just now to impose
upon me in the dress of a woman, and, were it not that I knew him so
well, he might have got my beard stripped from my face, and my bones
broken besides; but I feel confident that if any one could trace and
secure the outlaw, he could--I mean with proper assistance. Think of
this."

"I shall find him out," replied Woodward, "and sound him, at all events,
and I think through Caterine Collins I may possibly secure him; but we
must be cautious. Good-by; I wish you success!"

After which he passed through the crowd, exclaiming,

"A wonderful man--an astonishing man--and a fearful man; that is if he
be a man, which I very much doubt."

CHAPTER XII. Fortune-telling

Ever since the night of the bonfire Woodward's character became
involved more or less in a mystery that was peculiar to the time and
the superstitions of the period. That he possessed, the Evil Eye was
whispered about; and what was still more strange, it was not his wish
that such rumors should be suppressed. They had not yet, however,
reached either Alice Goodwin or her parents. In the meantime the
feelings of the two families were once more suspended in a kind of
neutral opposition, each awaiting the other to make the first advance.
Poor Alice, however, appeared rather declining in health and spirits,
for, notwithstanding her firm and generous defence of Charles Lindsay,
his