'DEAR LARKIN,--I saw my friend _Smith_ here in the cafe, who has kept a bright look out, I dare say; and tells me that Captain Stanley Lake is thinking of standing either for the county or for Dollington. I will thank you to apprise him that I mean to take my choice first; and please hand him the enclosed notice open as you get it; and, if you please, to let him run his eye also over this note to you, as I have my own reasons for wishing him to know that you have seen it. 'This is all I will probably trouble you about elections for some months to come, or, at least, weeks. It being time enough when I go back, and no squalls a-head just now at home, though foreign politics look muggy enough. 'I have nothing particular at present about tenants or timber, except the three acres of oak behind Farmer Tanby's--have it took down. Thomas Jones and me went over it last September, and it ought to bring near 3,000_l_. I must have a good handful of money by May next. 'Yours, my dear Larkin, 'Very truly, 'MARK WYLDER.' Folded in this was a thin slip of foreign paper, on which were traced these lines:-- '_Private._ 'DEAR LARKIN,--Don't funk the interview with the beast Lake--a hyaena has no pluck in him. When he reads what I send him by your hand, he'll be as mild as you please. Parkes must act for me as usual--no bluster about giving up. Lake's afraid of yours, 'M. W.' Within was what he called his 'notice' to Stanley Lake, and it was thus conceived:-- '_Private._ 'DEAR LAKE--I understand you are trying to make all safe for next election in Dollington or the county. Now, understand at once, that _I won't permit that_. There is not a country gentleman on the grand jury who is not your superior; and there is no extremity I will not make you feel--and you know what I mean--if you dare despise this first and not unfriendly warning. 'Yours truly, 'MARK WYLDER.' Now there certainly was need of Wylder's assurance that nothing unpleasant should happen to the conscious bearer of such a message to an officer and a gentleman. Jos. Larkin did not like it. Still there was a confidence in his own conciliatory manners and exquisite tact. Something, too, might be learned by noting Lake's looks, demeanour, and language under this direct communication from the man to whom his relations were so mysterious. Larkin looked at his watch; it was about the hour when he was likely to find Lake in his study. The attorney withdrew the little private enclosure, and slipt it, with a brief endorsement, into the neat sheaf of Wylder's letters, all similarly noted, and so locked it up in the iron safe. He intended being perfectly ingenuous with Lake, and showing him that he had 'no secrets--no concealments--all open as the day'--by producing the letter in which the 'notice' was enclosed, and submitting it for Captain Lake's perusal.