re?'

'Yes, but we found nothing to help us in our search. He ran about,
snuffing and moaning, and it was only with some trouble we got him to
come away with us.'

'Search till you find the child, Godfrey,' urged Lady Coke, taking the
water which Mademoiselle had now brought to her. 'I shall know no peace
till she is restored to me. My little girl! Confided to me at her dead
mother's wish! How have I fulfilled my trust?'

Her distress exhausted her so much that Colonel De Bohun was rejoiced to
see his wife enter the room, saying she intended to remain the night
with her aunt. The Colonel almost carried his aunt upstairs, promising
that the search should not be given up as long as the faintest hope of
tracing the child remained.

Thomas, for whom a hunt was at once started, had disappeared, and with
him the stranger. No one had seen them; but gradually a rumour got about
that a boat was missing from among the many on the beach of
Tyre-cum-Widcombe, and it was whispered that no one knew the coast
better than the young gardener.

Thomas was just such a person as Lady Coke had described to the children
when she told them the story of Dick. Little bluntings of conscience had
begun his downward career--temptation not at once resisted--then the
gradual yielding as the bribe became more dazzling. And this was how it
happened.

The Moat House was celebrated for its orchid-houses. In no part of his
work did Peet take so deep an interest as in the care of these beautiful
and curious plants. But keen as was his pride and delight in them, it
was fully shared by his mistress, Lady Coke. She visited the hothouses
constantly, frequently bringing her guests to enjoy the sight of the
flowers in full blossom.

Peet had a brother in India, who belonged to the Woods and Forests
Department, and now and again he had received roots and seeds from him
of some more than commonly beautiful plants found in the wilds of the
jungle. Sometimes the attempt to grow these had proved a failure; but
some had richly rewarded the effort. The pleasure taken in the
cultivation of the flowers, and the value of many of them, was pretty
well known to all the under-gardeners, Thomas among them.

It appeared that Peet had lately received a small parcel from India,
which had been packed with even more care than usual. Being busy he had
not had time to examine it till his work was done, when, as he smoked
dreamily in his armchair, he suddenly remembered th