e; and, oh! he's never away from me at night, with
his bloody hands on his head trying to save it, and screaming out for
God to help him. And what did I get for it? answer me that," yelled
he, in accents shrill with passion. "Is it my wife begging from door to
door--is it my children naked and hungry--is it my little place, a ruin
and a curse over it--or is it myself trying to forget it in drink, not
knowing the day nor the hour that it will rise up against me, and that
I 'll be standing in the dock where I saw _him_ that you tried to murder
too?"

"There is no use in this passion," said the other, calmly; "let us be
friends, Tom; it is our interest to be so."

"Them's the very words you towld Mr. Phillis, and the next day he was
taken up for robbery, and you had him transported."

"Phillis was a fool, and paid the penalty of a fool; but you are a
shrewd fellow, who can see to his own advantage. Now listen to me
calmly: were it not for bad luck, we might all of us have had more money
now than we could count or squander. Had Maritana continued upon the
stage, her gains would by this time have been enormous. The bank, too,
would have prospered; her beauty would have drawn around us all that
was wealthy and dissipated in the world of fashion; we could have played
what stake we pleased. Princes, ambassadors, ministers of state would
have been our game. Curses be on his head who spoiled this glorious
plan! From that unhappy night at Venice she never would appear again,
nor could she. The shock has been like a blight upon her. You have seen
her yourself, and know what it has made her."

The artifice by which the speaker contrived to change the topic, and
withdraw the other from a painful subject to one of seeming confidence,
was completely successful; and in the altered tone of voice might be
read the change which had come over him.

"You wish to go to America, Tom?" continued he, after a pause.

"Ay; I never feel safe here. I 'm too near home."

"Well, if everything prospers with us, you shall have the money by
Tuesday--Wednesday at farthest. Rica has at last found a clew to old
Corrigan, and, although he seems in great poverty, his name upon a bill
will still raise some hundreds."

"I don't care who pays it, but I must get it," said the other, whose
savage mood seemed to have returned. "I 'll not stay here. 'T is little
profit or pleasure I have standin' every night to see the crowds that
are passing in, to be chea