"'Or perhaps,' I calmly interrupted, 'you would prefer the constable to come and take both it and the house in charge. This would better please me. Shall I send for the constable?' "'No, no,----you! Do you want to make a prison-bird of me at once?' "'I do not want to,' said I, 'but the circumstances force me to it. A house which has given up one treasure may give up another, and for this other I am accountable. Now as I cannot stay here myself to watch over the place, it necessarily follows that I must provide some one who can. And as an honest man you ought to desire this also. If you felt as I would under the circumstances, you would ask for the company of some disinterested person till our rival claims as executors had been duly settled and the right heir determined upon.' "'But the constable? I don't want any constable.' "'And you don't want Mr. Dickey?' "'He's better than the constable.' "'Very well; Mr. Dickey, will you stay?' "'Yes, I'll stay; that's right, isn't it, Susan?' "Miss Thompson who had been looking somewhat uneasy, brightened up as he spoke and answered cheerfully: "'Yes, that's right. But who will see me home?' "'Can you ask?' I inquired. "She smiled and the matter was settled. "In the hall I had the chance to whisper to Mr. Dickey: "'Keep a sharp lookout on the fellow. I do not trust him, and he may be up to tricks. I will notify the constable of the situation and if you want help throw up a window and whistle. The man may make another attempt to rob the premises.' "'That is so,' was the whispered reply. 'But he will have to play sharp to get ahead of me.'" V. DIFFICULTIES. "During the short walk that ensued we talked much of the dead widow and her sinister brother. "'They belong to an old family,' observed Miss Thompson, 'and I have heard my mother tell how she has danced in their house at many a ball in the olden times. But ever since my day the place has borne evidences of decay, though it is only in the last five years it has looked as if it would fall to pieces. Which of them do you think was the real miser, he or she? Neither of them have had anything to do with their neighbors for ten years at least.' "'Do not you know?' I asked. "'No,' said she, 'and yet I have always lived in full view of their house. You see there were years in which no one lived there. Mr. Wakeham, who married this woman about the time father married mother, was a great invalid, and it was not till his death that the widow came back here to live. The father, who was a stern old man, I have heard mother tell, gave his property to her because she was the only one of his children who had not displeased him, but when she was a widow this brother came back to live with her, or on her, we have never been able to determine which. I think from what I have seen to-night it must have been on her, but she was very close too, or why did she live like a hermit when she could have had the friendship of the best?'