"
"I don't understand."
"Why," continued. Clinton, "I was about to take a foolish step to-morrow
morning, for the express purpose, I believe, of keeping him, and
probably the whole family in the country."
He then detailed the conversation that he had with his nephew, upon
which Fethertonge convinced him that there was more in the wind with
respect to that step, than either he or his nephew, who he assured
him was made a cat's paw of in the business, suspected. "That's a deep
move," said the agent, "but we shall defeat them, notwithstanding.
Everything, however, depends upon their leaving the country before
Chevydale happens to come at the real state of the case; still, it will
go hard or we shall baffle both him and them yet."
Whether Clinton Was sure that the step urged upon him by his nephew was
the result of a generous regard for M'Mahon, or that the former was made
a mere tool for ultimate purposes, in the hands of the Ahadarra man, as
he called him it is not easy to determine. Be this as it may, when
the hour of eleven came the next morning, he was prepared to set his
nephew's generosity aside, and act upon Fethertonge's theory of doing
everything in his power to get the whole connection out of the country,
"Ha," he exclaimed, "I now understand what Harry meant with respect to
their emigration--'It is that fact which presses upon him most.
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