credulous wife to the place
where they will soon bring her long-absent husband. All details have
been arranged with care. Action will be promptly decisive. As the Thames
hushed voices, so shall here be forever stilled tell-tale murmurs of
these menace tones.

What trifles thwart mature plans!

There could be no doubt of Mary Dodge's consent. This fond wife, who
hitherto unmurmuringly had complied with all hard details of
concealment, submitting without complaint to scant supplies, given and
accepted as gratuitous alms, waiting and longing for her husband's safe
return, surely would obey all instructions, moving with alacrity to lure
and death.

But strong motives may run counter. That holy instinct which has all
authority of original implanting asserts its high-born function. Little
Nellie is too sick to be left alone; William Dodge can wait; Pierre
Lanier may frown; Paul may look darkly fierce; Mary Dodge may tremble;
but she will not leave that helpless invalid whatever betides.

It recks little how anciently or from what rudimentary beginnings this
peerless impulse dates its growth; whether spontaneous breath of divine
instillment, or evolved through cycles of the eternal past, such has
sanction and warrant of the Infinite.

Thwarted here, Lanier craft resorts to most plausible shift. Suspecting
that possibly this timid woman hesitates to go with them, at such late
hour, to a strange place, there to await the uncertain coming of her
husband, they devise other plans to obviate this objection, finally
deciding upon the one resulting in the arrests.

William Dodge had received Pierre Lanier's letter sent to Paris. While
convalescent at the hospital this reached him, addressed to his alias,
and caused such sudden removal, without leaving of any explanation for
Sir Donald or Esther Randolph. Having sent a nurse for his mail, he
received the invitation to return. Pierre Lanier had written him that
things looked better, but still were a little shaky. By using proper
precaution, all would turn out favorably. He need not write Mary, as she
and the children were well. By promptly returning, he could see his wife
and children. There were good reasons for Mary's failure to answer his
letters. All would be explained on his arrival in Calcutta. Affairs soon
would shape so that he could pay the whole balance yet due. As some
precautions were wise, it would be advisable for Dodge to dress as at
London, sail under his past al