“A little too well, I admit.”

“If he should accept this offer?”

“But he won’t.”

“If he should;” persisted the Chief.

“If such a thing were possible,—if, without a friendly consultation, and a fair and square send off, he should take up the cudgel against me, then—”

“Then, Dick?”

Richard Stanhope’s eyes flashed, and his mouth set itself in firm lines.

“Then,” he said, “I would measure my strength against his as a detective; but always as a friend, and never to his injury!”

“And, Dick, if, in the thick of the strife, Van forgets his friendship for you and becomes your enemy?”

“Then, as I am only human, I should be his enemy too. But that will not happen.”

“I hope not; I hope not, my boy. But—Van Vernet has already accepted the stranger’s proposition.”

Stanhope leaped to his feet.

“What!” he cried, “has Van agreed to work against me—without a word to me—and so soon!”

His lips trembled now, and his eyes searched those of his Chief with the eager, inquiring look of a grieved child.

“It is as I say, Stanhope.”

[51]

“What, has Van agreed to work against me—without a word to me—and so soon!”—page 50.

“Then,” and he threw back his head and instantly resumed[52] his usual look of careless indifference, “tell your patron, whoever he may be, that I am his man, for one year, or for twenty!”

[52]

CHAPTER V.

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