Percy's fork dropped from his arm with a clatter upon his plate, andLewis' face took an expression of blank dismay which, fortunately forhim, no one observed.

His father! Had they then run all this risk, been guilty of thismeanness, only to delay, to destroy a letter to Seabrooke's father,while that to the physician, exposing their delinquencies, had gone onits way unmolested.

CHAPTER V.

R0BBING THE MAIL.