h as to be worthy of living with such as she."

"A plague on her nobility! It will cut all our throats, or halter us;
and your methodistical jargon only encourages her. Noble or not, she has
been cunning enough to listen to our private conversation; has found out
all our designs; has blabbed everything to this young fellow, and made
him master of our lives. Yes! would you believe it of her nobleness and
delicacy, that she has this night visited him in his very chamber?"

"What!"

"Yes! indeed! and she avows it boldly."

"Ah! if she avows it, there's no harm!"

"What! no harm?"

"I mean to _her_. She's had no bad purpose in going to his chamber. I
see it all!"

"Well, and is it not quite enough to drive a man mad, to think that the
best designs of a man are to be thwarted, and his neck put in danger, by
the meddling of a thing like this? She has blabbed all our secrets--nay,
made him listen to them--for, even while we ascended the stairs to his
chamber, they were concealed in the closet above the stairway, watched
all our movements, and heard every word we had to say."

"And you _would_ be talking," retorted the landlord. The other glared at
him ferociously, but proceeded:--

"I heard the sound--their breathing--I told you at the time that I heard
something stirring in the closet. But you had your answer. For an
experienced man, Munro, you are duller than an owl by daylight."

"I'm afraid so," answered the other coolly. "But it's too late now for
talk. We must be off and active, if we would be doing anything. I've
been out to the stable, and find that the young fellow has taken off his
horse. He has been cool enough about it, for saddle and bridle are both
gone. He's had time enough to gear up in proper style, while you were so
eloquent along the stairs. I reckon there was something to scare him off
at last, however, for here's his dirk--I suppose it's his--which I found
at the stable-door. He must have dropped it when about to mount."

"'Tis his!" said Rivers, seizing and examining it. "It is the weapon he
drew on me at the diggings."

"He has the start of us--"

"But knows nothing of the woods. It is not too late. Let us be off. Lucy
is recovering, and you can now leave her in safety. She will find the
way to her chamber--or to _some_ chamber. It seems that she has no
scruples in going to any."

"Stop that, Guy! Don't slander the girl."

"Pooh! are you going to set up for a sentimentalist?"

"No: bu