The Mansion.—Offers of Magnitude.—The Double Plot.
Who or what the form was that so unexpectedly met the terrified gaze of the savage smith, and his more nervous and timid companion in the Old Smithy, we must leave to be discovered in the progress of our eventful and strange narrative.
By the first gray tint of morning light, there sat three persons in a small room of the mansion of Learmont; they were the smith, Gray, and the squire himself. A quantity of money lay upon the table before them, upon which Gray’s eyes were fixed with eager expression. The smith was evidently not indifferent to the sparkling treasure before him, but he did not exhibit his feelings so openly as Jacob Gray, while the Lord of Learmont himself sat with his back to the dim light in moody silence.
“I shall be off,” cried Gray, “before another cock can proclaim the day is coming.”
Learmont merely inclined his head.
“And I,” said Britton, “leave here for London in the course of the day.”
“Once more,” said Learmont, in a deep hollow voice—“once more I offer you the large sum I have mentioned, if you will accede to my two propositions.”
“No sir,” replied Gray, “I say no.”
“And you, Britton?”
“I say no, likewise,” replied the smith.