Mr. Mandeville coincided with the magistrate, and then they agreed to keep the matter strictly to themselves for the present.

“Shall I retain the letter?” inquired the justice.

“No, I wish to use it, first, and will then leave it with you,” was the reply—­and thus the matter was settled between them.

While the events just related were transpiring, and at the very hour when Mr. Mandeville was consulting the man of law, Duffel was engaged with his two ruffian associates in a plot of villainy, which, for deep cunning and calculation, was superior to anything he had yet conceived and carried out, though it was but a link in the chain of criminal acts he had forged out and was about to follow up.  The two held their consultation in the tongueless and earless solitude of a dense swamp, where none could hear their words or learn the purport of their schemes and give warning.

“You understand about the horses, do you?” queried Duffel, after he had been explaining some intended operation, in which horses were to be stolen.

“Yes, fully,” was the reply.

“Well, the horses will be missed, and, of course, it will be known that somebody has taken them.  I have a measure to propose which will throw suspicion on the wrong track and relieve us from any fear of being charged with the theft or even suspected of guilt.”

“That’s the sort! do the killing and get the halter around some other rascal’s neck.  Let us hear your proposition, lieutenant.”

“You have not forgotten that I mentioned to you in the cave the other evening, that I might need your services in getting rid of a troublesome fellow who was in my way.  I did not then expect to need your services so soon, if at all, in this branch of our agreement; but, as the horse business is agreed upon, and as the fellow may possibly be something of a hindrance to my plans of operation in the future, I think this will be a first-rate occasion on which to dispose of him.  As I said, somebody will be accused of stealing the horses, and as it is known that you, gentlemen, have recently been in these parts, and as suspicion has long since pointed to you as having had a hand in several transactions held to be unlawful, you will, as a matter of certainty, be designated as the thieves in this instance, unless, by some master-stroke of policy, you can fairly show that you are not guilty.  Do you see this?”

“It all looks mighty likely, certain.”

“Don’t it look more than likely?  Don’t it look just as if it could not be otherwise?”

“Why, yes; it does look so, that’s a fact.”

“Of course you would like to cast the blame somewhere else?”

“We would, that’s certain.”

Well, you can do it.  I have already prepared the way, and if you will follow my instructions to the letter, the thing is done?”

“Give us our parts and we will act them to the life,” said Bill, who had been spokesman for both, as was usual at such times.