e spoke, he placed his hand upon his heart. "The
sheriff," he added, "and his officers are there by this time--for I do
assure you, Phil, I will make short work of it. As for those ungrateful
scoundrels that refused to send their cars and carts, I know how to deal
with them; and yet, the rascals, as matters now stand between Hartley
and us, I can't afford to turn them out of the corps."

"Go ahead, I say," replied Phil; "I have better game on hands than your
confounded corps, or your confounded popish M'Loughlins."

Raymond, who walked, _pari passu_, along with him, looked at him from
time to time and, as he did, it might be observed that his eyes flashed
actual fire--sometimes with an appearance of terrible indignation, and
sometimes with that of exultation and delight.

Val now proceeded to execute his great mission of vengeance. As he went
along--his heart literally beat with a sense of Satanic triumph and
delight; his spirit became exhilarated, and all his faculties moved in a
wild tumult of delirious enjoyment. He was at best but a slow horseman,
but on this occasion he dashed onward with an unconscious speed that
was quite unusual to him. At length he reached M'Loughlin's, whither the
carts had been sent, immediately on his return from Deaker's. All there
seemed very quiet and orderly; the usual appearance of business and
bustle was not of course visible, for, thanks to his own malignant
ingenuity and implacable resentment, there were many families in the
neighborhood not only thrown out of employment, but in a state of actual
destitution. Having knocked at the hall door, it was instantly opened
by one of his own retainers, and without either preface or apology he
entered the parlor. There was none there but M'Loughlin himself, Gordon
Harvey, the excellent fellow of whom we have already spoken, and whom
M'Loughlin, in consequence of his manly and humane character, had
treated with kindness and respect--and Solomon M'Slime who had arrived
only a few minutes before him.

"Gentlemen," said M'Loughlin, "what have I done, that I am to thank
you both for your kindness in honoring a ruined man with this unusual
visit."

Val gave him a long, fixed and triumphant look,--such a look as a
savage gives his worst enemy, when he gets him beneath his knee, and
brandishes his war-knife, before plunging it in his throat.

"Indeed, my good neighbor," replied Solomon, seeing that Val did not
speak, "I believe it is a matter of