"Be calm, my dear friend," said the devoted little woman; "what I have to tell, calls for the utmost calmness."
"Tell me what it is," said Webster; "I will be as calm as you could wish, but do not, I pray you, keep me in suspense."
"Well," replied Mrs. Lawton, "I learned this morning that Lewis and Scully have been arrested and taken to Henrico Jail."
"When did this occur?" asked the invalid, a great weight pressing upon his heart.
"The very day they were here last," answered the woman.
"Then all is lost," exclaimed the sick man. "I feared as much; and now the time has come I will meet it manfully; however," he continued, "it will be only a short time before I will share the same fate."
"Why do you think so?" anxiously inquired Mrs. Lawton. "Surely they cannot connect you with these men."
"I do not know why I think so, but I am as confident that I will be brought into this matter as though the officers were already here to arrest me."
While he yet spoke, there came a knock at the chamber door, which, on being opened, revealed the form of Captain McCubbin.
As he entered the room he gazed furtively around, and his salutation to Webster was very different from the cordiality which had marked his previous visits.