"I haven't any hold on Carnes, and I have on Shuffles."
"What do you mean?" asked the prudent conspirator, curiously.
"If Shuffles won't join us, he won't blow on us, you may depend upon that. He wouldn't dare to do it. I could break him before sundown, if I chose," said Wilton, with conscious power.
"That alters the case."
"Of course, I shouldn't think of saying anything to him, if I did not know what I was talking about. I have him where the hair is short, and he knows it, as well as I do."
"What is it, Wilton?"
"No matter what it is. When a thing is told me in confidence, I keep it to myself; but if he turns traitor to his cronies, he must look out for breakers. He knows what it is."
"Well, if you can get him, he will be a first-rate fellow to have."
"I think I can get him. Here he comes; you keep out of the way, and I will see how deep the water is."
Monroe went forward to find a student to whom he had been deputed to speak in the interest of the enterprise leaving Wilton to grapple with the old lion of mischief, whose teeth, however, seemed to have been worn out in the cause.