“What of it?”
“Only,” answered Arrison, with a laugh,” get rid of this Major.”
“But how?”
“If ‘twas me I’d go out quietly, some fine morning, and take a good position in the brush, near by where I was sure he would pass, and when he came along, I’d pull trigger on him, and so have done with his interference forever. All things are fair in love as in war, you know.”
But Aylesford had sufficient honor left to decline such a proposal, involving deliberate assassination, though he would have eagerly seized any opportunity to take the life of his rival in a less cold-blooded way.
“Well, then,” said the villain, “since you won’t take that course, we must try and get him picked off in a fight. He’ll probably, if he’s not a coward, go down to the Neck the moment he hears the vessels there are in danger. It would be a possible thing, though not an easy one, to shoot him there.”
But Aylesford shook his head.
“Too much uncertainty about it, you think? Well, maybe you’re right,” said the outlaw. “I would wish to make a sure thing of it, if I was yon, that’s a fact. But my invention is almost at an end. I really don’t know what to advise,” he concluded, with a puzzled air.
“If she had only reached New York, there would have been none of this,” said Aylesford, gloomily. “I wish to heaven she was there now.”
“Nothing easier than to get her there,” answered the refugee, “if that will suit your purpose. By the Lord, I’ve hit it at last,” cried he, with sudden energy, emphasizing his words by striking the table till the bottle danced again. “I can put her in New York in a week’s time, if you’ll trust to me; and you shall, moreover, do what will make a set-off to this Gordon’s rescue of her; in short, if you place yourself in my hands, she’ll be yours, or else you’re a fool, which no one yet ever took you to be.”