"You embrace the whole difficulty—or rather the greater portion of it at once, my dear doctor," exclaimed the Black, delighted to find that his friend entered so minutely and with such keen perception into the affair. "The business presses in every way. In the first place, it is necessary that an innocent man should be relieved as speedily as possible from the dreadful charge hanging over his head; and secondly, the exhumation of the coffin in Saint Luke's churchyard must be prevented this night."
"Certainly it must;" observed Dr. Lascelles. "For if once Old Death knew that the coffin contained not the remains of Thomas Rainford, the discovery might engender certain suspicions in the mind of such an astute old scoundrel as he."
"In a word, doctor, Torrens must be saved; and yet the two men, who rejoice in the names of Joshua Pedler and Timothy Splint, must not be handed over to justice," observed the Black.
"Such ought to be the policy adopted," said the physician: "and, remember, that though these two men are not to be rendered up to justice, they must be taken such care of for the future as to commit no more murders and accept no more employ in the service of such miscreants as Old Death."
"Of that I shall indeed take good care," said the Black.
"But how will it be possible to save Torrens without handing Splint and Pedler over to justice in his place?" demanded the physician. "You will be a clever fellow if you accomplish that difficulty."
"I am prepared to encounter it, doctor," returned the Black; "and you must aid me in the business. Are you so intimately acquainted with any magistrate or justice of the peace, that you could invite him to dinner?"
"What an extraordinary question!" cried Dr. Lascelles, laughing. "How will my asking a magistrate to dinner serve your purposes?"
"Only thus far," responded the Black: "that you would have the kindness to walk a little way with him on his return home in the evening, and that I should have you both very quietly kidnapped, blindfolded, and carried off to some place where you would both have to receive and witness the statements made by two men named Joshua Pedler and Timothy Splint, whom I shall have safe in my own custody within a few hours."
"I understand," said the physician, laughing heartily. "Capital! capital! But, by the bye,—when I think of it—your old friend Sir Christopher Blunt was gazetted two days ago to be one of his Majesty's Justices of the Peace for the County of Middlesex. Would he not serve your purpose? or do you think——"