But there are more strange tales flying about with regard to yon Lord Claud than about almost any other man in town; and folks say that many a likely lad, dashing and brave, has become confederate for a time with him, and has then vanished no man knows whither.

I would not that such a fate should befall you, Tom." A slight shiver ran through Tom's frame.

He felt that there was an ugly suggestion in these words.

How easily might some disastrous turn of fortune's wheel that other night have left him a victim upon those fields instead of the gallant horse who carried him! How skilfully and easily had Lord Claud played upon him, prompting him to an act which a few months ago he would have shrunk from in the greatest horror! There was something almost diabolic in the beauty, the fascination, the cleverness, of the man.

Tom made a resolution, as these things flashed through his mind, that he would have no more dealings with him, if this was what they led to.