o. I only looked for a moment; for I was much more anxious to get
off quietly, than to make any one out. If I had only waited ten
minutes, it might have been the saving of his life, but my commission
was so like fun, and so important too, that I thought of nothing else.
Can it be not twenty-four hours ago?'

'And why don't you explain why he sent you?'

'I cannot say it so certainly as to be of the slightest use,' said
Leonard.

'He never expressed it either; and I have no right to talk of my
suspicions.'

'Eh! was it to put it out of Sam's way?'

'So I suppose. Sam used to get all he chose out of the poor old man;
and I believe he thought this the only chance of keeping anything for
himself, but he never told me so. Stay! Bilson's cheque might be
tracked. I took it myself, and gave the receipt; you will find it
entered in the books--paid on either the twenty-third or fourth.'

'Then there's something to do, at any rate,' cried Henry, invigorated.
'Anderson shall hunt out the balance and Sam's draughts on it. I'll
spare no expense, Leonard, if it is to my last farthing; and you shall
have the best counsel that can be retained.'

Leonard signed thanks with some heartiness, and was going to the door,
when Henry detained him. 'Tell me, Leonard, have you no suspicion?'

'It must have been the person I saw in the court, and, like a fool, did
not watch. The window was open, and he could have easily got in and
come out. Can't they see that if it had been me, I should have made
off at once that way?'

'If you could only tell what the fellow was like!'

'I told you he was in the dark,' said Leonard, and without giving time
for more, he called in the man outside, showed the clothes and, books
he had selected, put them into his bag, and declared himself ready,
giving his hand to the Doctor, who drew him near and kissed his brow,
as if he had been Harry setting forth on a voyage.

'Good-bye, my dear fellow; God bless you; I'll soon come to see you.'

'And I,' said Henry, 'will bring Bramshaw to see what is to be done.'

Leonard wrung his brother's hand, murmuring something of love to his
sisters; then put Mab into Dr. May's arms, with injunctions that the
little creature understood and obeyed, for though trembling and whining
under her breath, she was not resisting.

It might be to shorten her distress as well as his own that Leonard
passed quickly down-stairs, and entered the carriage that was to take
hi