"Really," said Sprowl, chuckling as he thought of it, "'twill be better for our plans to have him out of the way."
"Yes," said Bythewood; "the girls will need protectors, and your wife will welcome you back again."
"And Virginia," added Sprowl, "will perhaps look a little more favorably on a rich, handsome, influential fellow like you! I see! I see!"
There was another who saw too,—a sudden flash of light, as it were, revealing to Penn all the heartless, scheming villany of the friendly-seeming Augustus. He grasped the Stackridge pistol; his eyes, glaring in the dark, were fixed in righteous fury on the elegant curly head.
"If I am discovered, I will surely shoot him!" he said within himself.
"The old man," suggested Sprowl, "won't live long in jail."
"Very well," said Bythewood. "If the girls come to terms, why, we will secure their everlasting gratitude by helping him out. If they won't, we will merely promise to do everything we can for him—and do nothing."
"And the property?" said Lysander, somewhat anxiously.
"You shall have what you can get of it,—I don't care for the property!" replied Bythewood, with haughty contempt. "I believe the old man, foreseeing these troubles, has been converting his available means into Ohio railroad stock. If so, there won't be much for you to lay hold of until we have whipped the north."
"That we'll do fast enough," said Lysander, confidently.