"And that will pay for all they got here."
"Especially," chimed in Conrad, "as they went off without their breakfast."
"So they did," said Ralph, with a broad smile.
He seemed amused by the thought that their guests had, after all, been overreached, and this contributed to restore his good humor.
Sarah breathed a sigh of relief. Her stratagem had been successful, and there was no suspicion entertained by her husband that she had assisted the two to escape. Had he suspected it, she shuddered to think what would have happened.
When Scott and the earl reached the hotel at Niagara, they went up to their room to finish out a night's rest, their slumber at the farmhouse having been interrupted.
The consequence was that they appeared late at breakfast.
Meanwhile there had been an arrival at the hotel of two characters well known to the reader.
Two days previously, Ezra Little suddenly determined to go to Buffalo. By the failure of a large firm in that city a considerable stock of goods had been thrown on the market. It was almost certain that the stock would be sold out for much less than its real value.
Ezra Little, among others, had received a notice from the assignee of the approaching sale. The goods were, many of them, in his line, and in several departments his own stock was getting short.