“He often stopped here?”

“Yes, sir.”

Mohun looked at the woman keenly, and said:—

“I wish you, now, to answer plainly the question which I am about to ask. I come hither as a friend—I am sent by your friend Mr. Nighthawk. Listen and answer honestly—Do you know any thing of a paper which Swartz had in his possession—an important paper which he was guarding from Colonel Darke?”

“I do not, sir,” said Amanda, with her eternal smile.

“For that paper I will pay a thousand dollars in gold. Where is it?”

The woman’s eyes glittered, then she shook her head.

“On my salvation I do not know, sir.”

“Can you discover?”

Again the shake of the head.