ed, "though if the affair is one that must go on, I do not promise
that I can continue to act for you. I am very busy just now."

Captain Thorn explained his dilemma, and Mr. Carlyle told him what to
do in it. "Were you not at West Lynne some ten years ago?" he suddenly
inquired, at the close of the conversation. "You denied it to me once at
my house; but I concluded from an observation you let fall, that you had
been here."

"Yes, I was," replied Captain Thorn, in a confidential tone. "I don't
mind owning it to you in confidence, but I do not wish it to get abroad.
I was not at West Lynne, but in its neighborhood. The fact is, when I
was a careless young fellow, I was stopping a few miles from here, and
got into a scrape, though a--a--in short it was an affair of gallantry.
I did not show out very well at the time, and I don't care that it
should be known in the country again."

Mr. Carlyle's pulse--for Richard Hare's sake--beat a shade quicker.
The avowal of "an affair of gallantry" was almost a confirmation of his
suspicions.

"Yes," he pointedly said. "The girl was Afy Hallijohn."

"Afy--who?" repeated Captain Thorn, opening his eyes, and fixing them on
Mr. Carlyle's.

"Afy Hallijohn."

Captain Thorn continued to look at Mr. Carlyle, an amused expression,
rather than any other, predominant on his features. "You are mistaken,"
he observed. "Afy Hallijohn? I never heard the name before in my life."

"Did you ever hear or know that a dreadful tragedy was enacted in this
place about that period?" replied Mr. Carlyle, in a low, meaning tone.
"That Afy Hallijohn's father was--"

"Oh, stay, stay, stay," hastily interrupted Captain thorn. "I am telling
a story in saying I never heard her name. Afy Hallijohn? Why, that's the
girl Tom Herbert was telling me about--who--what was it?--disappeared
after her father was murdered."

"Murdered in his own cottage--almost in Afy's presence--murdered
by--by----" Mr. Carlyle recollected himself; he had spoken more
impulsively than was his custom. "Hallijohn was my father's faithful
clerk for many years," he more calmly concluded.

"And he who committed the murder was young Hare, son of Justice Hare,
and brother to that attractive girl, Barbara. Your speaking of this has
recalled, what they told me to my recollection, the first evening I was
at the Herberts. Justice Hare was there, smoking--half a dozen pipes
there were going at once. I also saw Miss Barbara that evening at