"Do no murder, uncle! let him not persuade you into crime; break off from a league which compels you to brook a foul insult to those you are bound in duty to protect." "Would I could!" was his muttered sentence as he left the chamber. He felt the justice of the counsel, but wore the bewildered expression of countenance of one conscious of what is right, but wanting courage for its adoption. "She has told you no foolish story of me?" was the somewhat anxious speech of Rivers upon the reappearance of the landlord. "She has said nothing in plain words, Guy Rivers--but yet quite enough to make me doubt whether you, and not this boy we pursue, should not have my weapon in your throat. But beware! The honor of that child of Edgar Munro is to me what would have been my own; and let me find that you have gone a tittle beyond the permitted point, in speech or action, and we cut asunder. I shall then make as little bones of putting a bullet through your ribs as into those of the wild bullock of the hills. _I_ am what I am: my hope is that _she_ may always be the pure creature which she now is, if it were only that she might pray for me." "She has mistaken me, Munro--" "Say no more, Guy. She has not _much_ mistaken you, or I have. Let us speak no more on this subject; you know my mind, and will be advised.--Let us now be off. The horses are in readiness, and waiting, and a good spur will bring us up with the game. The youth, you say, has money about him, a gold watch, and--" The more savage ruffian grinned as he listened to these words. They betrayed the meaner motives of action in the case of the companion, who could acknowledge the argument of cupidity, while insensible to that of revenge. "Ay! enough to pay you for your share in the performance Do your part well, and you shall have all that he carries--gold, watch, trinkets, horse, everything. I shall be quite content to take--his life! Are you satisfied? Are there any scruples now?" "No! none! I have no scruples! But to cut a throat, or blow out a man's liver with a brace of bullets, is a work that should be well paid for. The performance is by no means so agreeable that one should seek to do it for nothing." Guy Rivers fancied himself a nobler animal than his companion, as he felt that he needed not the mercenary motive for the performance of the murderous action. They were mounted, the horses being ready for them in the rear of the building. "Round the hollow. We'll skirt the village, and not go through it," said Munro. "We may gain something on the route to the fork of the roads by taking the blind track by the red hill." "As you will. Go ahead!" A few more words sufficed to arrange the route, and regulate their pursuit, and a few moments sufficed to send them off in full speed over the stony road, both with a common and desperate purpose, but each moved by arguments and a passion of his own.