h inclined to run for help, or at least for counsel,
either to Lord Castlewood or to Major Hockin; but further consideration
kept me from doing any thing of the kind. In the first place, neither
of them would do much good; for my cousin's ill health would prevent him
from helping me, even if his strange view of the case did not, while
the excellent Major was much too hot and hasty for a delicate task like
this. And, again, I might lose the most valuable and important of all
chances by being away from the spot just now. And so I remained at
Shoxford for a while, keeping strict watch upon the stranger's haunt,
and asking about him by means of Mrs. Busk.

"I have heard more about him, miss," she said one day, when the down
letters had been dispatched, which happened about middle-day. "He has
been here only those three times this summer, upon excuse of fishing
always. He stays at old Wellham, about five miles down the river, where
the people are not true Moonites. And one thing that puzzles them is,
that although he puts up there simply for the angling, he always chooses
times when the water is so low that to catch fish is next to impossible.
He left his fishing quarters upon the very day after you saw him
searching so; and he spoke as if he did not mean to come again this
season. And they say that they don't want him neither, he is such a
morose, close-fisted man; and drinking nothing but water, there is very
little profit with him."

"And did you find out what his name is? How cleverly you have managed!"

"He passes by the name of 'Captain Brown;' but the landlord of his inn,
who has been an old soldier, is sure he was never in the army, nor
any other branch of the service. He thinks that he lives by inventing
things, for he is always at some experiments, and one of his great
points is to make a lamp that will burn and move about under water. To
be sure you see the object of that, miss?"

"No, really, Mrs. Busk, I can not. I have not your penetration."

"Why, of course, to find what he can not find upon land. There is
something of great importance there, either for its value or its
meaning. Have you ever been told that your poor grandfather wore any
diamonds or precious jewels?"

"No. I have asked about that most especially. He had nothing about him
to tempt a robber. He was a very strong-willed man, and he hated outward
trumpery."

"Then it must be something that this man himself has dropped, unless it
were a doc