"Well—er—I might as well make a clean breast of it, fellows—although I hope you will keep it to yourselves. You'll remember how thick Crabtree and I once were?"
"Yes," answered all of the Rovers in a low tone. They could realize how painful the remembrance of it must be to Dan, now.
"Well, he had an idea that I was the same old Dan and ready for new schemes for making money. He had a scheme, and he wanted me to help him work it."
"What was it?" asked Dick.
"Well, you'll remember that he was always crazy after Mrs. Stanhope."
"He was crazy after her money, and Dora's money."
"Exactly. Well, he wanted me to help him in a scheme against Mrs. Stanhope—the same old scheme he tried years ago. He wanted to get her in his power and force her to marry him."
"What! Marry that jailbird!" cried Dick, and his eyes flashed fire. "What a father-in-law Josiah Crabtree would make!"
"That's it, Dick. He talked around the bush a good deal at first, and I led him on, wanting to know what he had up his sleeve. He talked about his affinity and all that, and said that Mrs. Stan-
