otherwise empty and the lock a special one that
gave me a bit of trouble he's not likely to bother with it until old man
Congdon turns up to close the stock transaction. When he opens it he
will find fifty thousand dollars of good bills neatly piled there and
if he has the imagination of a canary he will think the fairies have
played a trick on him!"

"My God!" moaned Archie. "You don't think you can get away with this!"

"I think," returned the Governor imperturbably, "that _we_ must and will
get away with it." His emphasis on the plural pronoun caused Archie to
cringe. "It strikes me as highly amusing that we have unloaded those
bills of Leary's on a good sport like Seebrook. As I locked that stuff
in his trunk I got to laughing--really, I did--and a chambermaid roaming
the hall must have heard me, for the key rattled in the lock just as I
slipped out of the window. There's Leary's suitcase and I've packed it
with our soiled linen and stuck in a pair of shoes for weight.
Seebrook's legal tender is neatly rolled up in my best silken hose in my
kit bag. Hark! There's Seebrook tumbling into his bed, which is just
beneath mine!"

"You're getting me in pretty deep," mumbled Archie dejectedly.

"How about those blood stains on the sidewalk at Bailey Harbor?" asked
the Governor in his blandest tones. "When you speak of getting in deep
you forget that some one besides Hoky was shot back yonder. You came to
me red-handed from a deed of violence, and I took you in and became your
protector, asking no questions. It's the basest ingratitude for you to
whimper over a small larceny when you have added assault or murder to
the liabilities of our partnership! But don't forget for a moment that
we're pals and pledged to see each other through."

The reference to the blood stains reported by the Bailey Harbor police
threw Archie back instantly upon the Governor's mercy. Complicity in
the robbery of Seebrook was as nothing compared with the haunting fear
that the man he had shot in the Congdon house had died from the wound.
Unable to determine this question he was floundering in a veritable sea
of crimes. The Governor was undressing with provoking indifference to
his companion's perturbation.

"Sleep, lad, sleep! You may be sure that nothing will harm us tonight,
and I have faith that more stirring adventures are ahead of us. I
forgive you your qualms and quavers, the pardonable manifestations of
youth and inexperience. We walk in