"You are in quiet possession?"
"Yes."
"Then, sir, you may thank me for that little plan of mine at the wood-yard. If I had not prevented you from continuing your journey, all your hopes would have been blasted."
"I do not understand you."
"Where is your niece now?" asked the attorney, as a shade of anxiety beclouded his brow.
"She was lost in the explosion," replied Jaspar, with a calmness with which few persons can speak of the loss of near friends.
The attorney was particularly glad at this particular moment to ascertain that this, as he had before suspected, was Jaspar's belief, and that this belief had lulled him into security. He was not, however, so candid as to give expression to his sentiments on the subject.
"Precisely so!" exclaimed the attorney, as though no shade of doubt or anxiety had crossed him. "The Chalmetta exploded her boiler."
"Well!"
"Both Miss Dumont and her troublesome lover were lost,—were they not?"