"That second attempt, sir," replied the little man, "will never be made by me. I have a positive abhorrence for a horse, sir, and no power on earth, sir, would induce me to become a chevalier."
"Very well, Mr. Billing," replied the other, "I'll not attempt to persuade you against your own inclinations; I can only thank you for your services on this occasion, and if you will meet me in the store, when you have recovered yourself a little, we will proceed to business;" saying which, the couple parted.
In the store where Rainsfield entered were, besides sundry articles that were not strictly alimentary, the carcass of a sheep, suspended from one of the beams, and a bag of flour; or rather a bag that had contained flour, for the bag was suspended supinely by two ropes, with its mouth open; and on a sheet on the floor was heaped the flour it had contained. To this heap, after closing and locking the door, Rainsfield advanced; and, first taking a furtive glance around, to satisfy himself that he was unnoticed, he stooped down and deliberately mixed with it the arsenic that had been brought by Mr. Billing. He had performed this operation, and had just rebagged the flour, when Billing turned the handle of the door, at the sound of which Rainsfield started like a detected thief.
At no time are the words of the immortal bard, "thus conscience doth make cowards of us all," more forcibly displayed than when an honourable or upright man steps from the straight path of honour and integrity to perform a despicable or criminal action. Thus Mr. Rainsfield could not quiet the chidings of his conscience, which did not disguise from him the enormity of the crime he was committing; and when he heard the step of his storekeeper at the door he felt the weight of contemplated guilt, and for some moments had not the power of articulation.
Mr. Billing was just turning away, thinking his master was not in the building, when Mr. Rainsfield opened the door with a blush on his cheek, and a lie in his mouth, to support his first deception and subsequent interruption.
"I hardly heard you, Mr. Billing," said he, "when you tried the door, as I was busy, and I had locked it to prevent being disturbed. You see," he continued, as his confidential entered, "I have had a sheep killed for our purpose. This we will now inoculate with the strychnine you have procured; and we will send it out to the plains for the dogs to consume to-morrow; and we can continue the operation at frequent intervals until the animals disappear. The arsenic, I think, we may keep for the present, and see first how this acts. You will perceive I have removed all the stores into the house with the exception of this one bag of flour, which I discovered to be slightly damaged, so had it sifted. I was just packing it again as you came to the door, and being so much occupied I did not hear you. By the way," he repeated to himself, "I may as well close it up;" and turning to Billing, he resumed: "will you be good enough to step into the house and get me a needle and string?"
Mr. Billing went for the required articles, and during his absence, Rainsfield removed the sheet on which the flour had been spread, and destroyed all traces of his labour; so that, upon Billing's return, the work, or that portion of it, was accomplished, and the bag was placed in an upright position against the wall.
The sheep was then removed from the beam, and the inside was well rubbed and besmeared with the poison; after which it was placed in its former position, and the outside submitted to a similar manipulation. This completed the pair left the store; the door was locked by the master, and the key taken away by him to prevent, as he said, the possibility of accidents.
"Do you not think," suggested Mr. Billing, "we had better have the flour removed into the house?"
"Oh, no, it does not signify to-day," replied Rainsfield, "it will take no harm there until the morning, and we can have it removed then when we send the fellows up to the plains with the meat."