ll and Mary
at some appointed place--I do not now recall--on the road, many miles
from Lawsonville."

"But when the man returned with me," asked Abner, "did you not then
learn his full name, and something of his history?"

"I did not see him," was Dudley's reply. "I was away from home, and he
stayed only an hour or so after committing you into your aunt's care.
She was too shocked by the tidings he brought and by her pity and care
for you, cold, sick, half starved, and bewildered as you were by the
long, rough travel, to think of anything else."

"Could it be possible," thought Abner, "that the man deceived the
Dudleys in regard to the woman who had died at Bryan's, and that it was
his own wife instead of Marshall's? No, that could not be," he
concluded; "he could have had no possible motive for the deception.
Surely, there must be numbers of persons still living who were in the
siege of Bryan Station, or the battle of Blue Licks, and who could not
only remember this man's full name, but other circumstances that will
be of service to us now. Mason Rogers can, I'm certain, find some
person or persons who can give the evidence we need. I will communicate
with him; and, in the meanwhile, I will go to Centerton."

Abner returned from Centerton without having gleaned any information
that would throw additional light upon the mystery. He was further
perplexed that no reply to his letter to Rogers had reached
Williamsburg.

"I suppose I will have to go to Cane Ridge for information," he
concluded when another month had passed bringing no word from Rogers,
"although my soul revolts against revisiting the place of my lost
happiness. But go I must, unless I soon hear from Mr. Rogers. I will
tell everything to dear Mr. and Mrs. Rogers. They are noble-hearted,
discreet and sympathetic, and they will still be my staunch friends. I
will also while there make some disposition of my farm--I think I can
easily find a buyer or a renter for it. Afterwards, I do not know what
I shall do, nor does it matter much, either, what becomes of a
nameless, baseborn--no, no!" he broke off, ashamed of his momentary
weakness. "I will not let such unworthy sentiments master me. It is
unmanly to give way like this, and is a wrong to my noble, unselfish
foster mother and father. And even if they were not still left me, I
must still be true to myself, and rise above the shameful circumstances
which would pull me down. It would not do for me to retur