"'That is something,' I said, giving now what appeared my adhesion to his scheme. 'Perhaps I spoke too roughly to them, and I would not lie in the clink for it. Yet to kidnap a boy--for such 'twill be at best, and he, too, sheltering with me and trusting me--is a grave and serious thing, which, if discovered, might send me to the plantations also, if not the gibbet.' "'Have no fear,' he said; 'my lord shall give you a quittance to hold you harmless.' "'He must,' I made answer, 'and more; I must have an earnest of my payment. I will attempt nothing until I receive an earnest.' "He looked round at the sleeping serving-maid as I spoke, and then he drew forth his silk purse again and shook some guineas out into the palm of his hand, and whispered to me, 'How much will serve, Quin? Eh? Five guineas. Eh? What! More!' "'Ay, more!' I said. 'Many more. That purse contains forty pieces if one. Give me twenty-five as an earnest and twenty-five to-morrow when we meet again and then, provided that I have the remainder an hour before your friend's brig sails, the boy shall be hoisted on board insensible, and the _Dove_ may take him to Virginia or the devil either for aught I care.' "And so," Oliver concluded, "he did it. He paid the guineas down--there they are; look at them, lad! And thou art, therefore, bound for Virginia, there to spend thy life, or at least a portion of it, in slavery on the plantations. Ho, ho, ho!" and again he laughed until the rafters rung once more. CHAPTER V THE SPRINGE IS SET Thus Oliver concluded his narrative of his meeting with O'Rourke. What came of that meeting you are now to see. But first I must tell you what his own scheme was, and how he intended to work out upon the head of Robert St. Amande the result of his own villainy. My uncle had been married in early life to a young lady of good family and some means--upon which latter he had more or less managed to exist for several years--belonging to the South of Scotland. She had, however, died in giving birth to a son ere they had been married a twelvemonth, and it was as guardian of this son and custodian of his late wife's property, which that son was to inherit when he attained his twenty-first year, that he had, as I say, principally existed. At least he had done so until he devised the scheme of assisting my father to ease himself of the family property, when, naturally, he found more money coming his way than he had heretofore done, and so, perhaps, ceased his inroads on what remained of that which was due to my cousin on reaching his majority.