eply we are all obliged to you for your
goodness in hurrying away from England directly you got home, and in
spending weeks and weeks wandering about after us."

"I shall be glad to call again in the morning, Miss Hardy, but I shall
start for England in the evening; I am anxious to be back now that my
mission is fulfilled. My son is to be married in ten days' time, and he
would like me to be present, although he said in his last letter that he
quite agreed that the first thing of all was to find you and deliver the
message, whether I got home or not. As I have several matters to arrange
before his marriage, presents to get, or one thing or other, I shall go
straight through."

"That is right," Captain Bayley said, "we will travel together, my dear
sir; for of course we shall go straight back to England now. We have
been dawdling about in this wretched country long enough. Besides,
everything has to be arranged, and we have got to get to the bottom of
this matter; so if you have no objection, we will travel home together.
If the young people here want to dawdle about any longer they can do so;
I dare say they can look after themselves, or if not, I can make an
arrangement with some old lady or other to act as Alice's chaperon."

"You silly old man," Alice said, kissing him, "as if we were not just as
anxious to get home and to get to the bottom of the thing as you are."

So the next afternoon the party started in the diligence which was to
take them over the St. Gothard to Lucerne.

Alice had by this time heard, somewhat to the confusion of her ideas,
that Frank was no longer the lad she had always depicted him, but a
tall, powerful young man, rough and tanned by exposure, and a fair match
in strength for the wildest character in the mining camp.

By the time they reached London Mr. Adams and Captain Bayley had become
fast friends, and the first thing the next morning, Captain Bayley drove
with Alice to Bond Street and purchased the handsomest gold watch and
chain he could find as a wedding-present for young Adams, and a bracelet
as handsome for Alice to send to the bride; then he sent Alice home in
the carriage and proceeded to his lawyer's. He returned home in the
worst of tempers. Mr. Griffith had refused to admit that the receipt of
Frank's message had in any way changed the position.

"I understood all along, Captain Bayley, that your nephew, when accused
by his master, had denied the theft; the mere fact that