Having risen to his feet, he left the group, muttering his wordless malignity as he went along, and occasionally pausing to look back with the fiery glare of a hyena at the house in which the robbery of his soul’s treasure had been planned and accomplished.

It is unnecessary to say that the arrangements entered into with Cassidy, by John O’Brien, were promptly and ably carried into effect.  A rapid ride soon brought the man of briefs and depositions to the prison, where the unhappy Connor lay.  The young man’s story, though simple, was improbable, and his version of the burning such as induced Cassidy, who knew little of impressions and feelings in the absence of facts, to believe that no other head than his ever concocted the crime.  Still, from the manly sincerity with which his young client spoke, he felt inclined to impute the act to a freak of boyish malice and disappointment, rather than to a spirit of vindictive rancor.  He entertained no expectation whatsoever of Connor’s acquittal, and hinted to him that it was his habit in such cases to recommend his clients to be prepared for the worst, without, at the same time, altogether abolishing hope.  There was, indeed, nothing to break the chain of circumstantial evidence in which Flanagan had entangled him; he had been at the haggard shortly before the conflagration broke out; he had met Phil Curtis, and begged that man to conceal the fact of his having seen him, and he had not slept in his own bed either on that or the preceding night.  It was to no purpose he affirmed that Flanagan himself had borrowed from him, and worn, on the night in question, the shoes whose prints were so strongly against him, or that the steel and tinder—­box, which were found in his pocket, actually belonged to his accuser, who must have put them there without his knowledge.  His case, in fact, was a bad one, and he felt that the interview with his attorney left him more seriously impressed with the danger of his situation, than he had been up till that period.

“I suppose,” said he, when the instructions were completed, “you have seen my father?”

“Everything is fully and liberally arranged,” replied the other, with reservation; “your father has been with me to—­day; in fact, I parted with him only a few minutes before I left home.  So far let your mind be easy.  The government prosecutes, which is something in your favor; and now, good-by to you; for my part, I neither advise you to hope or despair.  If the worst comes to the worst, you must bear it like a man; and if we get an acquittal, it will prove the more agreeable for its not being expected.”