though you didn't find my
money;" and the old man sighed heavily. "I reckon I shall never see
nothin' more on't."

"I'm afraid you never will, Squire Fairfield. That nigger lied so like
all possessed that Levi got clear, and then we couldn't do anything.
I'm afraid it's too late to do anything more. I calculate that nigger
and Levi understand one another pretty well. They fixed things between
them, and I'm just as sure as I can be that your money went off in that
vessel."

"In the yack?"

"Yes, in the yacht," replied Dock, warmly. "It was stowed away
somewhere in her; but I suppose they have got rid of it by this time."

"You think I shan't never see it again," groaned the old man, with a
piteous expression on his thin face.

"I'm sorry to say I don't think you ever will, Squire Fairfield."

"Then I'm a ruined man! I can't afford to lose four thousand dollars.
It was e'enamost all I had, and I don't see but I must go to the
poorhouse."

Dock Vincent took off his hat, rubbed his head, gazed upon the ground,
and seemed to be in deep thought for several minutes. So was the miser
in deep thought--brooding over his lost treasure.

"Squire Fairfield, when I begin to do a thing I always do it, sooner or
later," said Dock, glancing doubtfully at the old man.

"You didn't find my money," added Mr. Fairfield.

"No; but I'm going to find it, or some more just like it. Squire
Fairfield, I can put you in the way of making twenty thousand dollars
just as easy as you lost that four thousand."

"You don't say!" exclaimed the old man, his sunken eyes glowing at the
suggestion.

"I can; there isn't any doubt about it."

"You don't mean to steal it--do you?"

"Steal it! You don't think I'd steal--do you? If you do, I won't say
anything more about my little plan."

Another little plan!

"Well, no; I never knowed you to steal nothin'."

"Twenty thousand dollars is a good deal of money, Squire Fairfield."

"So 'tis--more 'n I ever expect to see."

"But you shall see it, and have it, if you will take hold of my little
plan."

"What is't?" asked the old man, curiously and eagerly.

"It's something we must keep still about. I'm going to make my fortune
out of it, and yours too."

"What do you want to keep still for, ef you ain't go'n' to steal it?"

"I see it's no use to talk with you," said Dock, petulantly. "If you
think I'd steal, I can't depend upon you, or you upon me. So there's an
end of it."

Dock rose