at the moment on his way upstairs.

Yates knew that, with his good clothes on, the keen lawyer would give
but one interpretation to the change, and that any hope or direct plan
he might have with regard to ascertaining when the boy was received into
the family, and where he came from, was nugatory. He would not tell Mr.
Belcher this.

Mr. Balfour called his wife to the window, pointed out the retreating
form of Yates, gave utterance to his suspicions, and placed her upon her
guard. Then he went to his office, as well satisfied that there was a
mischievous scheme on foot as if he had overheard the conversation
between Mr. Belcher and the man who had consented to be his tool.

CHAPTER XIV.

WHICH TELLS OF A GREAT PUBLIC MEETING IN SEVENOAKS, THE BURNING IN
EFFIGY OF MR. BELCHER, AND THAT GENTLEMAN'S INTERVIEW WITH A REPORTER.

Mr. Balfour, in his yearly journeys through Sevenoaks, had made several
acquaintances among the citizens, and had impressed them as a man of
ability and integrity; and, as he was the only New York lawyer of their
acquaintance, they very naturally turned to him for information and
advice. Without consulting each other, or informing each other of what
they had done, at least half a dozen wrote to him the moment Mr. Belcher
was out of the village, seeking information concerning the Continental
Petroleum Company. They told him frankly about the enormous investments
that they and their neighbors had made, and of their fears concerning
the results. With a friendly feeling toward the people, he undertook, as
far as possible, to get at the bottom of the matter, and sent a man to
look up the property, and to find the men who nominally composed the
Company.

After a month had passed away and no dividend was announced, the people
began to talk more freely among themselves. They had hoped against hope,
and fought their suspicions until they were tired, and then they sought
in sympathy to assuage the pangs of their losses and disappointments.

It was not until the end of two months after Mr. Belcher's departure
that a letter was received at Sevenoaks from Mr. Balfour, giving a
history of the Company, which confirmed their worst fears. This history
is already in the possession of the reader, but to that which has been
detailed was added the information that, practically, the operations of
the Company had been discontinued, and the men who formed it were
scattered. Nothing had ever been earned, and