“Here are directions which will enable you to find it without the necessity of my attending you;” and he handed him a slip of paper, upon which were written minute directions to the supposed locality of the treasure.

“But, suppose,” said Dalhousie, after he had read the directions, “while I am digging, you should close the doors upon me?”

“Honor!” said Jaspar, laying his hand upon the place where the heart belonged, with an amusing contortion of the facial muscles.

“I have not the highest confidence in your honor.”

“Perhaps not; but I can suggest a better protection.  Have you any person at hand upon whose faith you can rely?”

“None but my wife,” replied Dalhousie, carelessly, for the mortifying fact seemed laden with nothing of bitterness.

“So much the better.  She will be true.  Station her at the door, and, if she sees me approach, you can be sure to be on the outside when I close the door.”

Jaspar’s air of sincerity did as much to assure him as the fitness of the plan suggested, and the overseer determined to adopt it.

Briefly he narrated to his wife—­though with some variations and concealments, for he knew she would not endorse all his operations—­the history of the affair, and the good fortune that awaited him; and requested her attendance at the jail, to stand sentry over the gloomy den, while he dug up the treasure.

De Guy’s patience was nearly exhausted when the overseer and his wife made their appearance.  He had only time to conceal himself in a cane-field, when the doomed couple reached the jail.  Dalhousie walked twice round it, before he ventured to enter the building.  Stationing his wife at the door, he proceeded to measure out the locality of the supposed treasure.

De Guy watched them.  For half an hour he remained quiet, when the vigilance of the lady-sentinel began to abate, and, by the exercise of extreme caution, he succeeded in reaching, undiscovered, the rear of the jail.  Cat-like, he crept to the corner, and listened.  He could hear their conversation.  Carefully he stole round to the corner nearest to the door.  For an instant the wife had left her station, to observe the progress of her husband’s labor.  The time had come, and the attorney was not the man to let the favorable moment pass unimproved.  With a rapidity which seemed utterly incompatible with his rotund corporation, he flew to the door, and sprung the trap upon the hapless pair, in the midst of their vision of wealth and happiness.

Carefully locking the doors of the dungeon, he walked back to the mansion as coolly as though he had only impounded his neighbor’s cow.  Entering the library, he found Jaspar impatiently waiting his return.

“Are they safe?” said he.

“As safe as your jail-walls can make them.  Your plan was a clumsy one, but I forced it to succeed.”

“Did they not enter without scruple?”