h should have been killed and that no account should be given
as to the finding of the body. At last he persuaded himself that he
could not have killed the man, but he was assured at the same time that
the disappearance must in some sort have been occasioned by what then
took place. And it could not but be that the captain, if alive, should
be aware of the nature of the struggle which had taken place. He heard,
chiefly from the newspapers, the full record of the captain's
illegitimacy; he heard of his condition with the creditors; he heard of
those gambling debts which were left unpaid at the club. He saw it also
stated--and repeated--that these were the grounds for the man's
disappearance. It was quite credible that the man should disappear, or
endeavor to disappear, under such a cloud of difficulties. It did not
require that he and his violence should be adduced as an extra cause.
Indeed, had the man been minded to vanish before the encounter, he might
in all human probability have been deterred by the circumstances of the
quarrel. It gave no extra reason for his disappearance, and could in no
wise be counted with it were he to tell the whole story, in Scotland
Yard. He had been grossly misused on the occasion, and had escaped from
such misusage by the only means in his power. But still he felt that,
had he told the story, people far and wide would have connected his name
with the man's absence, and, worse again, that Florence's name would
have become entangled with it also. For the first day or two he had from
hour to hour abstained from telling all that he knew, and then when the
day or two were passed, and when a week had run by,--when a fortnight had
been allowed to go,--it was impossible for him not to hold his tongue.

He became nervous, unhappy, and irritated down at Buston, with his
father and mother and sister's, but more especially with his uncle.
Previous to this his uncle for a couple of months had declined to see
him; now he was sent for to the Hall and interrogated daily on this
special subject. Mr. Prosper was aware that his nephew had been intimate
with Augustus Scarborough, and that he might, therefore, be presumed to
know much about the family. Mr. Prosper took the keenest interest in the
illegitimacy and the impecuniosity and final disappearance of the
captain, and no doubt did, in his cross-examinations, discover the fact
that Harry was unwilling to answer his questions. He found out for the
first t