it might be proper to
renew the attempt which Williams had made to trace the footsteps of his
friend to the moment of his final disappearance. He had pursued Watson
to Thetford's; but Thetford himself had not been seen, and he had been
contented with the vague information of his clerk. Thetford and his
family, including his clerk, had perished, and it seemed as if this
source of information was dried up. It was possible, however, that old
Thetford might have some knowledge of his nephew's transactions, by
which some light might chance to be thrown upon this obscurity. I
therefore called on him, but found him utterly unable to afford me the
light that I wished. My mention of the packet which Watson had brought
to Thetford, containing documents respecting the capture of a certain
ship, reminded him of the injuries which he had received from Welbeck,
and excited him to renew his menaces and imputations on that wretch.
Having somewhat exhausted this rhetoric, he proceeded to tell me what
connection there was between the remembrance of his injuries and the
capture of this vessel.

"This vessel and its cargo were, in fact, the property of Welbeck. They
had been sent to a good market, and had been secured by an adequate
insurance. The value of this ship and cargo, and the validity of the
policy, he had taken care to ascertain by means of his two nephews, one
of whom had gone out supercargo. This had formed his inducement to lend
his three notes to Welbeck, in exchange for three other notes, the whole
amount of which included the _equitable interest_ of _five per cent. per
month_ on his own loan. For the payment of these notes he by no means
relied, as the world foolishly imagined, on the seeming opulence and
secret funds of Welbeck. These were illusions too gross to have any
influence on him. He was too old a bird to be decoyed into the net by
_such_ chaff. No; his nephew, the supercargo, would of course receive
the produce of the voyage, and so much of this produce as would pay his
debt he had procured the owner's authority to intercept its passage from
the pocket of his nephew to that of Welbeck. In case of loss, he had
obtained a similar security upon the policy. Jamieson's proceedings had
been the same with his own, and no affair in which he had ever engaged
had appeared to be more free from hazard than this. Their calculations,
however, though plausible, were defeated. The ship was taken and
condemned, for a cause which