_Jas._ Then give reins to thy voice and hail him. He took the road to the left. (_Exit REUBEN shouting--his voice dies away in the distance._) Here’s a plight for the Lord of Combe-Raven! Stripped of an ancestral mansion and two thousand old acres; hunted to his death by broad-brimmed bloodhounds--separated from his pretty wife by some two hundred miles of barren land and stormy water, and saddled with a confounded brat that hampers his flight, let him turn whithersoever he will! And say that I cross this accursed Channel--how am I to get to Paris--penniless as I am? When I think of what I have before me, I’m minded to make short work with this world, and try another! By the Lord Harry!--(_stamps impatiently; his foot starts a board over DAN’L’S hoard._) Ha! Why, what’s this? Not gold? (_Takes out some._) Gold--and in profusion! Here’s a way out of our difficulties, if Combe-Raven were but the man to take it. The old miser! (_Handling the money._) Bah--in another week’s time we may, perhaps, come down to this sort of thing--who knows? But not yet--no, not yet. (_Throws it into hole._) Lie there--I’ll not meddle with thee, though (_closing hole_) thou’lt be spent on a worse errand than helping JASPER Combe to his wife and his king, I’ll be sworn. _Enter REUBEN in breathless haste. JASPER quickly covers the hole._ _Reu._ Yes, sir--we must fly--and that at once. _Jas._ What d’ye mean? _Reu._ I mean treachery--the old man has played us false!--I hear the horses’ hoofs in the distance---- _Jas._ A thousand devils wring his damnable neck! Run to the boat--get her ready for the sea. I’ll join thee at once and we’ll launch her together. _Reu._ But---- _Jas._ Well? _Reu._ If there’s such a thing as a crust of bread, or the tail of a dried mackerel---- _Jas._ But there’s not--be off. (_He watches him out, then quickly turns to the hole in which the money is concealed._) So--this changes the aspect of affairs. Old fool, thou hast betrayed us, and this is fair plunder. (_Takes it out of the hole._) With fair luck we may beat across to France to-night, and once there we are safe. But the child--again a clog on our movements! She would surely perish in an open boat on such a night as this. It’s a matter of life and death--_her_ life as well as mine. It would be murder to take her to sea with us, and it would be murder to remain and fight these fellows with her in our arms. There is no help for it--I must leave her here--this locket will serve to identify her (_putting a locket and chain on her neck_)--and I’ll reclaim her when I get across. They’ll never harm a child! _Enter REUBEN hurriedly._ _Reu._ Sir, sir, the troops are upon us--they’re not two hundred yards off---- _Jas._ I’m coming. (_Exit REUBEN. JASPER writes on a piece of paper, and pins it on the child’s dress._) So--lie thou there, and God help thee, little one. I’m loth to leave thee, but it’s for life and death--for life and death!