"He must be allowed to run away. You can work that up. The affair can be kept between yourself, Sargent, and Alden, and when the latter is exposed you can feign sympathy, telling him if he will leave at once the affair will remain a secret. Yes, you can even offer to loan him the money to pay the deficiency. Make the evidence so strong against him that he cannot possibly see a way of escape, and if I know anything of human nature he will run away rather than be exposed." "Suppose he should first see my daughter, and she should advise him to remain and face the danger." "It must be done when she is absent from home. You must find some pretence to send your wife and daughter on a visit to friends, or else send them to New York." "You are a shrewd fellow, Mannis, and no mistake." "A shrewd rogue, you mean." "No, I do not. In this affair I am but doing the duty that a father owes to his child. She is in danger of being sacrificed to an adventurer who only wants her father's money. But she shall be saved." The plotters talked a while longer about the matter; then Senator Hamblin withdrew, and Mannis said to himself: "Now my case does not seem as desperate as it did." And as Senator Hamblin stepped into the street, he said: "I don't like this affair at all, but I am losing heavily, and the ventures I have lately made have turned out bad. Mannis' fortune added to my own will save me from disaster. Poor Belle must be temporarily made unhappy, but when she finds herself the wife of Hon. Walter Mannis perhaps she will thank me for saving her." Perhaps the state prisons will one day hold the great rogues instead of small ones, but they did not do it in 187-, or the above recorded conversation could not have taken place. CHAPTER XVII. SARGENT ENLISTED. The time was approaching for Senator Hamblin to take his seat in the State Senate. After his interview with Mannis his conduct toward his daughter and George Alden underwent a change. Gradually assuming a loving deportment toward the former, he paid much attention to her personal comforts; in fact, began to act more like his former self. His cold formality seemed to thaw, and Belle was happier, while her mother entered a new era of existence as the husband's old manner returned. The change not only took place in his own household, but his demeanor toward the cashier was greatly altered for the pleasanter. Late one afternoon the president, calling the teller into his private office, said: "Sargent, I shall be here this evening doing private work. I want to see you about half past seven o'clock. Come in here as if on your own business, and if I am not alone go out and return soon afterward. Say nothing about this, but come on time. You can go now."