med. "I never saw a stronger likeness;
years have only dried him up a little." And without another word he
walked up to the old man, and said--

"What, Father Mendez! it is long since we met; but don't you know me?"

The priest cast a calm glance at him, totally free from astonishment, as
he answered--"Time changes all people. If it is long since we met, you
must excuse me if I do not recollect you."

"I forgot that," said Rolf, frankly. "My name is Morton--we met in
Shetland. Were you not then called Father Mendez?"

"I am called Father John," said the priest in the same calm tone as
before.

This reply would have irritated many men, but Rolf looked at him, and
said quietly--"That may be your present name, but unless my recollection
strangely deceives me, you were called Mendez."

The priest bowed and replied--"I have seen many people in the course of
my life. It is possible we have met, but you will understand that the
memory of a man, as he advances in life, is not as good as it was in his
youth."

"I have the advantage of you in that respect, certainly," persisted
Rolf, in a manner very different to his usual custom.

"Come, come, Father Mendez! we were too much together in days gone by
for you to have forgotten me any more than I have forgotten you,"
continued Morton. "I do not wish to annoy you, but I wish you to do an
act of justice. The son of your former patron and friend, Don Hernan
Escalante, was carried off from his mother's house by the crew of a
schooner which suddenly appeared before the place. He has never since
been heard of: what has become of him? I ask. His mother has friends
in this ship who will insist on knowing the truth. It will be wiser for
you to speak it at once."

The priest was more thrown off his guard by this appeal than he probably
had ever been before.

"I know nothing of Don Hernan's child," he answered quickly. "I did not
carry him off, nor was I privy to it. I could not be guilty of such a
deed; the members of my order never employ violence to bring about what
they desire. That alone ought to convince you that I am guiltless of
the charge you make against me."

Morton was not in the slightest degree more convinced than at first by
what the father said.

"Then, at all events, you do not deny that you were in Shetland, and
that I knew you as Father Mendez?" said Rolf.

The marquis and his daughter were all this time watching the speaker
with looks of ast