"'If he doesn't, said the first, with an oath that made my blood run chill, 'a little cold steel will settle the business. But the terms are easier than that; he's to be well paid for holding his tongue, and as he's a poor devil, he'll do anything for money. Oh, he'll agree; there's no trouble about that.'
"The increasing noise of the storm now drowned their voices altogether. I stood for a moment rooted to the ground with terror. That some terrible crime had been, or was to be perpetrated, in which, by some means, I was to be implicated, I plainly saw; and my only idea now was to escape. I started forward, but, as my unlucky fate would have it, I stumbled in the darkness and fell heavily to the ground with a violence that shook the old house.
"I heard, as I lay half stunned, an ejaculation of alarm from the inner room and quick footsteps approaching where I lay. All was now up with me, so I scrambled to my feet just as two men, wearing black crape masks over their faces, entered. Each carried pistols, and one held a dark-lantern, the light of which flashed in my face.
"'Who are you, sir?' fiercely exclaimed one; and I saw him draw a sword that made my blood curdle.
"I essayed to answer, but my teeth chattered so with terror that I could not utter a word.
"'Ha!' exclaimed the other, who all this time had been holding the lantern close to my face. 'This is the very fellow we were in search of. Your name is Richard Grove?'
"'Yes,' I managed to say, quaking with mortal fear.
"'You are a mason by trade, and live in Minton?' said, or rather affirmed, my fierce questioner.
"I replied in the affirmative, for I saw there was no use in attempting a lie.
"'All right, Tom. You go for the carriage; I will take care of our friend here until you return.'