ynn! It's a heavy secret for a man to carry about inside of
him. I must be going."

"So must I," said Tynn. "Roy, are you sure there's no mistake?" he
added. "It seems a tale next to impossible."

"Well, now," said Roy, "I see you don't half believe me. You must wait a
few days, and see what them days 'll bring forth. That Mr. Massingbird's
back from Australia, I'll take my oath to. _I_ didn't believe it at
first; and when young Duff was a-going on about the porkypine, I shook
him, I did, for a little lying rascal. I know better now."

"But how do you know it?" debated Tynn.

"Now, never you mind. It's my business, I say, and nobody else's. You
just wait a day or two, that's all, Mr. Tynn. I declare I am as glad to
have met with you to-night, and exchanged this intercourse of opinions,
as if anybody had counted me out a bag o' gold."

"Well, good-night, Roy," concluded Tynn, turning his steps towards
Verner's Pride. "I wish I had been a hundred miles off, I know, before I
had heard it."

Roy slipped over the gate; and there, out of sight, he executed a kind
of triumphant dance.

"Then there is no codicil!" cried he. "I thought I could wile it out of
him! That Tynn's as easy to be run out as is glass when it's hot."

And, putting his best leg forward, he made his way as fast as he could
make it towards his home.

Tynn made _his_ way towards Verner's Pride. But not fast. The
information he had received filled his mind with the saddest trouble,
and reduced his steps to slowness. When any great calamity falls
suddenly upon us, or the dread of any great calamity, our first natural
thought is, how it may be mitigated or averted. It was the thought that
occurred to Tynn. The first shock over, digested, as may be said, Tynn
began to deliberate whether he could do anything to help his master in
the strait; and he went along, turning all sorts of suggestions over in
his mind. Much as Sibylla was disliked by the old servant--and she had
contrived to make herself very much disliked by them all--Tynn could not
help feeling warmly the blow that was about to burst upon her head. Was
there anything earthly he could do to avert it?--to help her or his
master?

He did not doubt the information. Roy was not a particularly reliable
person; but Tynn could not doubt that this was true. It was the most
feasible solution of the ghost story agitating Deerham; the only
solution of it, Tynn grew to think. If Frederick Massingbird----