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.

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"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.




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