e can hire some boy or man to manage
the boat for us," continued the resolute girl, pressing the point upon
her yielding companion. "There are some men and boys fishing over
there, and they will be very glad to make some money."

"That will be the best way. If you will get one of those men to manage
the boat, I will go with you; for there isn't any fun in being drowned,
or in being run over by a steamboat."

"Very well, I will do that," replied Fanny, her black eyes snapping
with renewed vigor.

Ben, the boatman, who usually haunted the pier and the boat-house like
a familiar spirit, had added many infirmities to his burden of cares
during the eight years which have intervened since we first knew him,
and he was now confined to his house by an attack of rheumatism. There
was no one near, therefore, to interfere with the execution of Fanny's
plan. The Greyhound was moored a short distance from the pier, at which
the small skiff, which served as her tender, was fastened. The two
girls were about to embark in the little boat, when footsteps were
heard at the upper end of the pier.

Fanny started, released her hold of the painter of the skiff, and at
once realized that her brilliant project was in imminent danger of
being defeated. She turned to observe who the intruder was, and to her
horror and consternation, discovered that it was Mr. Long, the
constable, the greatest bugbear in the world to her on ordinary
occasions, and especially so in the present instance, when her
conscience accused her of a very wicked deed.

There was no opportunity to retreat, for the enemy was between her and
the main land. She had been so intent upon the argument with her more
cautious companion, that she had not noticed the approach of the
constable until his feet struck upon the planking of the pier. The
money she had stolen was in her pocket, and it felt just like a coal of
fire, which was soon to create a conflagration that might burn her up.
She very much desired, just then, to get rid of this evidence of her
crime, and she would have dropped the roll of bills into the water if
it would have sunk to the bottom, and disappeared from the sight of the
terrible man who was approaching.

Fanny did not doubt that the loss of the money had been discovered by
Mrs. Green, and that she had sent for the constable to arrest her and
put her in prison--a threat which the housekeeper had injudiciously
made on a former occasion, when the naughty gi