all very well,' he said. 'I suppose no boy who ran away from
school ever felt any strong desire to return. But I understand that you
admit that Mr. Turton tried to find you--that, in fact, he would have
found you if Jacintha had acted as she ought to have done.'

'I don't want to get Jacintha into a row,' I exclaimed, and the
slightest of smiles lighted his face.

'I am certain you don't,' he answered, 'and you need not trouble
yourself on that score. But as Mr. Turton tried to find you, it is
pretty clear that he wished to take you back with him. Now, if he
wished to take you back, he could not have had any strong objection to
keeping you. You don't complain that he treated you brutally?'

'No,' I said, 'I never saw him give any fellow a licking; but,
still----'

'Anyhow,' Mr. Westlake continued, 'I have decided to write to Major
Ruston, and tell him all the circumstances, offering to do anything on
your behalf which he wishes; then I shall take a train to Castlemore the
first thing to-morrow morning and have a chat with Mr. Turton.'

'I wish you wouldn't,' I exclaimed.

'That is what I feel compelled to do,' he said, 'and what I hope will
happen is this. I hope that Mr. Turton will take you back and promise me
to treat you well until there's time to get an answer from Madras. If
that answer is unfavourable, though it is not in the least likely to be,
I shall see Mr. Turton again. In any case, we must have no more
wanderings. There has been enough of that. Supposing that Major Ruston
cannot do anything, and Mr. Turton declines to keep you, we must make
the best of a bad job. No doubt I can find you employment in a firm with
which I am connected, and you ought to have sense enough to see that
this is the very best thing to be done in the circumstances.'

'Couldn't you find me work at once, and not tell Mr. Turton?' I
suggested eagerly, while Mrs. Westlake fixed her eyes on his face. But
he slowly shook his head.

'Understand,' he said, 'I don't intend to lose sight of you again. At
the worst, you will have to work for your living; but, in the meantime,'
he added, 'I am going to put you on your honour. You must give me your
word not to attempt to leave the house alone until my return.'

Of course I gave my word, but I felt that my last hope had gone. All
that I had done, all that I had passed through, had been to no purpose.
I might as well--far better--have stayed at Castlemore, since there
seemed little doub