no occasion to drown him
with a basin of soap-suds. It is your husband I want, madam, if he be
Dr. Chillingworth."

"Then, indeed, you must go on wanting him, sir, for he's not been to his
own home for a day and a night. He takes up all his time in hunting
after that beastly vampyre."

"Ah! Sir Francis Varney, you mean."

"I do; and I'd Varney him if I caught hold of him."

"Can you give me the least idea of where he can be found?"

"Of course I can."

"Indeed! where?" said the stranger, eagerly.

"In some churchyard, to be sure, gobbling up the dead bodies."

With this Mrs. Chillingworth shut the door with a bang that nearly
flattened the Hungarian's nose with his face, and he was fain to walk
away, quite convinced that there was no information to be had in that
quarter.

He returned to the inn, and having told the landlord that he would give
a handsome reward to any one who would discover to him the retreat of
Sir Francis Varney, he shut himself up in an apartment alone, and was
busy for a time in writing letters.

Although the sum which the stranger offered was an indefinite one, the
landlord mentioned the matter across the bar to several persons; but all
of them shook their heads, believing it to be a very perilous adventure
indeed to have anything to do with so troublesome a subject as Sir
Francis Varney. As the day advanced, however, a young lad presented
himself, and asked to see the gentleman who had been inquiring for
Varney.

The landlord severely questioned and cross-questioned him, with the hope
of discovering if he had any information: but the boy was quite
obdurate, and would speak to no one but the person who had offered the
reward, so that mine host was compelled to introduce him to the
Hungarian nobleman, who, as yet, had neither eaten nor drunk in the
house.

The boy wore upon his countenance the very expression of juvenile
cunning, and when the stranger asked him if he really was in possession
of any information concerning the retreat of Sir Francis Varney, he
said,--

"I can tell you where he is, but what are you going to give?"

"What sum do you require?" said the stranger.

"A whole half-crown."

"It is your's; and, if your information prove correct, come to-morrow,
and I'll add another to it, always provided, likewise, you keep the
secret from any one else."

"Trust me for that," said the boy. "I live with my grandmother; she's
precious old, and has got a cottage. We sell m