CHAPTER TWENTY ONE. Bubbling over with excitement, I was not long in finding Brace, whom I took aside and told of the plan. He stood with knitted brows in perfect silence, hearing me to the very end, and then, feeling chilled and disappointed, I looked into his stern face, and said-- "Then you don't think it will do?" He did not speak for a few moments. Then he gripped my wrist with all his might. "Gil," he said huskily, "it almost stunned me. The idea is as grand as it is simple. It is certain of success. My dear boy, what a brain you have!" "Oh no," I said hastily; "it was not I. It was poor Craig. He thought of it the day before yesterday, but I only got to know of it this morning." "I wish it had been you," said Brace. "But never mind; it is glorious. Craig will have saved us and our reputation far more than he thinks for." "Then he ought to be rewarded," I said. "Of course!" "Then you will put the plan in force?" "Directly, my dear fellow," cried Brace, excitedly. "There, I must be calm, and make my plans." He stood thinking for a few minutes, and then turned to me. "Yes," he said, "that will do. Now then; you will take the men, and--" "Oh no," I cried, "don't send me away. I must be in it, Brace." He looked at me searchingly. "It's a daring thing to do," he said. "And you are very young yet, my lad." "But I brought you the idea." "Yes; but carrying it out is another thing. Mr Haynes must come." "Oh no," I cried passionately. "It wouldn't be fair to me. Besides, it would be with my horses." "The Queen's horses for the time being, my boy. Don't you see that it will require strength and dash?" "Yes; and I feel as if I could dash into it." "But the risk?" "Never mind the risk, Brace," I cried excitedly. "Pray, pray, let me be in it." "Very well," he said--and my heart leaped. "You shall go; but follow my orders to the smallest point, and don't let your excitement get the better of you." "No; I'll be calm," I said. "Then there is no time to lose; they will be out soon, this cool pleasant morning." He took a few steps to one side, and gave the order to the men to fall in. The men saw that something was on the way, and sprang to their places, when Brace ordered the three horses to be saddled and bridled. This was quickly done, and by that time, and while they were being tethered to the nearest trees, the men had buckled on their belts, and taken the carbines from their rustic stand among the undergrowth. Then there was a dead silence, and Brace signed to me, and then marched off Haynes towards the edge of the forest, while I followed. When we got to the border, and stood by the plain with the rajah's town on our right, and the level extending to the left, till the forest swept round about a mile away, Brace pointed out a spot in the curve of verdure, where some half-dozen large trees towered up. "You see those, Haynes?" said Brace. "Yes."