We closed the ravine door, restored the brick as best
we could, and returned to the library. We made a list
of the Pickering notes and spent an hour discussing this
new feature of the situation.
"That's a large amount of money to lend one man,"
said Stoddard.
"True; and from that we may argue that Mr. Glenarm
didn't give Pickering all he had. There's more
somewhere. If only I didn't have to run-" and Larry's
face fell as he remembered his own plight.
"I'm a selfish pig, old man! I've been thinking only
of my own affairs. But I never relied on you as much
as now!"
"Those fellows will sound the alarm against Donovan,
without a doubt, on general principles and to land
a blow on you," remarked Stoddard thoughtfully.
"But you can get away, Larry. We'll help you off
to-night. I don't intend to stand between you and liberty.
This extradition business is no joke,-if they
ever get you back in Ireland it will be no fun getting
you off. You'd better run for it before Pickering and
his sheriff spring their trap."
"Yes; that's the wise course. Glenarm and I can
hold the fort here. His is a moral issue, really, and I'm
in for a siege of a thousand years," said the clergyman
earnestly, "if it's necessary to beat Pickering. I may
go to jail in the end, too, I suppose."
"I want you both to leave. It's unfair to mix you
up in this ugly business of mine. Your stake's bigger
than mine, Larry. And yours, too, Stoddard; why, your
whole future-your professional standing and prospects
would be ruined if we got into a fight here with the authorities."
"Thank you for mentioning my prospects! I've
never had them referred to before," laughed Stoddard.
"No; your grandfather was a friend of the Church and
I can't desert his memory. I'm a believer in a vigorous
Church militant and I'm enlisted for the whole war.
But Donovan ought to go, if he will allow me to advise
him."
Larry filled his pipe at the fireplace.
"Lads," he said, his hands behind him, rocking gently
as was his way, "let us talk of art and letters,-I'm going
to stay. It hasn't often happened in my life that
the whole setting of the stage has pleased me as much
as this. Lost treasure; secret passages; a gentleman
rogue storming the citadel; a private chaplain on the
premises; a young squire followed by a limelight; sheriff,
school-girls and a Sisterhood distributed through
the landscape,-and me, with Scotland Yard looming
duskily in the distance. Glenarm, I'm going to stay."
There was no shaking him, and the spirits of all of
us rose after this new pledge of loyalty. Stoddard
stayed for dinner, and afterward we began again our
eternal quest for the treasure, our hopes high from
Larry's lucky strike of the afternoon, and with a new
eagerness born of the knowledge that the morrow would
certainly bring us face to face with the real crisis. We
ranged the house from tower to cellar; we overhauled
the tunnel, for, it seemed to me, the hundredth time.