"You ought to have thought of that before you struck her. What's done is done. Be your old self, Rube. We are likely to want all our courage before this bank affair quiets down." "What's the latest, Lije?" asked Tisdale, in a low tone, and with some expression of anxiety. "I have not seen a paper to-day." "Oh, you may speak as loud as you wish," replied Callister, taking off the top of the lantern, and picking up the wick with a pin. "There's no one within a quarter of a mile of us. There's no special news other than what you know, except so far as concerns Frank Mansfield." "And what of him? Did the plan of Billy Cutts succeed?" "Yes, and no. Frank was arrested just as he was entering the bank, but on the way to the police station he managed to escape." "The deuce! How was that?" "No one seems to know. I sent a party to interview the detective who arrested him--a fellow by the name of Hook--but could only learn that somewhere in the neighborhood of the wall of Trinity church-yard he managed to give the officer the slip." "Was he handcuffed?" "Yes, so I understand." "And has not been caught since?" "No." "That is most mysterious." "So I say." "What do they say about the bank robbery?" "They all believe Frank was in the job, of course. The bank has offered a reward of a thousand dollars for his arrest." "And what about Joe Dutton?" "He was sent to the Tombs this morning. My party saw him, and he swears by all that's holy he'll die before he gives us away by so much as a word." "He'd better," muttered Tisdale, fiercely. "He'll be a dead Joe if he attempts to speak--don't let him forget that." "That's all very true, Rube," replied the stock broker, "but all the same his arrest is mighty bad for us. He's the first of our gang who ever fell into the hands of the law. When one goes, all goes--that's the old saying, you know." "Then so much the more reason why we should succeed to-night. I tell you, Lije, as I told you yesterday. It would be healthier for us to leave town for awhile." "Yes, or to put Joe Dutton where he can't do us any harm," replied Callister, in a fierce whisper. "What! you wouldn't----" "Wouldn't I? Well, never mind. Let's attend to the business we have in hand. Rube, old Mansfield's money is in this house. You know how the will reads. If Frank can be convicted of crime before he is old enough to inherit, which will now be in a very short time, the money comes to me in a regular course, and the parchment containing the secret of its hiding-place would have been delivered into my hand." "Exactly. And not satisfied with the job you put upon the boy, you must rope me into a bank robbery, where all we get is five thousand for our pains. You must have that parchment, and this is the result."