"But you will not be in condition to start to-morrow morning. You will be tired out."
"I can't take any risks this last evening, Edward."
"Then let me take your place. I will stay here."
"But it will be hard on you."
"I will lie later to-morrow morning. You can relieve me, if you like, at four o'clock."
"Let it be so, then! Too much is at stake for us to leave anything to chance. I don't think, however, that Wolverton would dare to renew his attempt."
Meanwhile Wolverton retraced his steps to his own house. There was one lonely place on the way, but the agent was too much absorbed in his own reflections to have room for fear. His occupation of mind was rudely disturbed, when from a clump of bushes two men sprang out, and one, seizing him by the shoulder, said, roughly: "Your money or your life!"
Wolverton was not a brave man, and it must be confessed that he was startled by this sudden summons. But he wasn't in the habit of carrying money with him in the evening, and an old silver watch, which would have been dear at four dollars, was not an article whose loss would have seriously disturbed him. So it was with a tolerable degree of composure that he answered: "You have stopped the wrong man."
"We know who you are. You are Aaron Wolverton, and you are a rich man."
"That may and may not be, but I don't carry my money with me."