venue, but the matter had literally slipped through
his fingers. He closed the door after the retreating boy, and went back
to his room without deigning to answer the inquiries that were excited
by his loud command to "stop him."

Sitting down, and taking to himself his usual solace, and smoking
furiously for a while, he said: "D---n!" Into this one favorite and
familiar expletive he poured his anger, his vexation, and his fear. He
believed at the moment that the inventor was alive. He believed that if
he had been dead his boy would, in some way, have revealed the fact.
Was he still insane? Had he powerful friends? It certainly appeared so.
Otherwise, how could the lad be where he had discovered him? Was it
rational to suppose that he was far from his father? Was it rational to
suppose that the lad's friends were not equally the friends of the
inventor? How could he know that Robert Belcher himself had not
unwittingly come to the precise locality where he would be under
constant surveillance? How could he know that a deeply laid plot was not
already at work to undermine and circumvent him? The lad's reticence,
determined and desperate, showed that he knew the relations that existed
between his father and the proprietor, and seemed to show that he had
acted under orders.

Something must be done to ascertain the residence of Paul Benedict, if
still alive, or to assure him of his death, if it had occurred.
Something must be done to secure the property which he was rapidly
accumulating. Already foreign Governments were considering the
advantages of the Belcher rifle, as an arm for the military service, and
negotiations were pending with more than one of them. Already his own
Government, then in the first years of its great civil war, had
experimented with it, with the most favorable results. The business was
never so promising as it then appeared, yet it never had appeared so
insecure.

In the midst of his reflections, none of which were pleasant, and in a
sort of undefined dread of the consequences of his indiscretions in
connection with Harry Benedict, the bell rang, and Mr. and Mrs. Talbot
were announced. The factor and his gracious lady were in fine spirits,
and full of their congratulations over the safe removal of the family to
their splendid mansion. Mrs. Talbot was sure that Mrs. Belcher must feel
that all the wishes of her heart were gratified. There was really
nothing like the magnificence of the mansion. Mrs.