-equipped cavaliers arrive at his humble
hostel, and under took to supply them with every thing they required.
Jack's first inquiry, however, after Master Pearson, made him look more
suspiciously at them.

"Master Pearson?" he said, "the farmer who lived out there in the fens?
Ah, curious things have been told about him since he went away. I
cannot exactly make out what to say about it."

"But where has he gone?" asked Jack eagerly; "can you tell me that?"

"No; nor no one either, master," he answered. "It's the better part of
six months gone, when Bill Green, who was riding across the fen, made
his way to the farm and found not a human soul there. Why they had
gone, or how they had gone, or where they had gone, no one from that day
to this can tell. The only thing we know is, that they did not come by
this road, and so it is supposed that they made for the sea-coast.
There was Master Pearson, and Mistress Pearson, who all said was a very
good woman, and their young daughter; but not a servant or a follower of
any sort did they take with them, that we know of. None of the
farm-servants belonged to this part of the country, and they had all
gone away some time before. Altogether the matter was a mystery, and is
a mystery still to my belief."

This information given by Master Bowleggs, the landlord of the Goose and
Goslings, was very unsatisfactory to Jack and his friend. They feared
from the circumstantial way in which it was given them that it was too
likely to be true. Jack had therefore great difficulty in keeping up
the spirits of his companion. He undertook to make further inquiries in
the neighbourhood, and to devote himself to the search for Elizabeth.

Leaving the anxious father at the little inn, Jack the next day rode off
to call on the different people with whom he had been acquainted during
his stay at the farm. Several days were employed in this manner, but
none of those on whom he called could give him the slightest
information. They all believed that Master Pearson had left the
country, and some supposed that he had gone to one of the plantations in
America, but that was only a surmise, as he had for some reason or other
left no trace of the direction he had taken. Very unwillingly,
therefore, Jack and his companion returned to Norwich.

Poor Madame de Mertens suffered greatly from the disappointment she felt
at the account which her husband and John Deane brought. Her kind
friends, howe