“I didn’t know that you city fellows ever had an opportunity to use such things as this,” said Don, bringing the weapon to his shoulder, and glancing along the clean, brown barrel. “O, yes, we do,” said Clarence. “Rifle-shooting is becoming quite fashionable now-a-days, and I used to spend an hour or two every evening at the gallery. I can make forty-five out of a possible fifty almost any time.” This was Greek to Don, who, however, did not ask any questions, for Clarence had so pompous a way of giving information and looked so surprised when any one asked him to explain his meaning, that Don did not like to show his ignorance. He handed the rifle back to his cousin and saw him walk out of the house, pass through the gate, and turn down the road that led to Godfrey Evans’s cabin. We have already told what sort of a reception he met at Godfrey’s hands, and have also described what he did to bring himself to the notice of that gentleman. He knew Godfrey as soon as he put his eyes on him. He studied the man’s face closely, and being satisfied with the opinion he formed, easily induced him to accompany him into the woods. He wanted to talk freely with him without running any risk of being overheard, but he hardly knew how to begin the conversation. He wanted to make a friend of his new acquaintance and gain his confidence, and in order to do that, he must be careful how he went to work. The pipe Godfrey had lost the night before, and which Clarence had brought with him in his game-bag, served him a good turn. In attempting to produce the cigars, he accidentally pulled out the pipe also. Godfrey recognised it, and so amazed was he to see his property, which he imagined he had lost beyond recovery, in the possession of an entire stranger, that he betrayed himself at once. After that it was no trouble for Clarence to open conversation with him about the buried treasure, and neither did he experience any difficulty in persuading Godfrey to accept him as an assistant in the place of Dan. Clarence learned to his great surprise and amusement that he had been the innocent cause of Godfrey’s hasty stampede on the previous night, and it was all he could do to refrain from laughing outright at the man’s description of the “haunt” he had seen. We have also told what arrangements the worthy pair made in regard to prosecuting the search and dividing the spoils after the barrel was found, and we know that when the interview was ended Clarence went home happy in the belief that he would soon be a rich man, and that no one under his uncle’s roof, not even his brother Marshall, would be the wiser for it. No one was the wiser for it then, but there was one who found out all about it a few hours later, and who interfered with his project in a manner so unexpected and effectual, that he not only put a stop to all efforts to find the money, but also came very near driving all the negroes off the plantation, and causing General Gordon the greatest trouble and