Semple and Sir John had cautioned
him against this procedure, and the inquiries he had been able to make
had been conducted at one time with such surprising caution that no
possible clue was given towards finding the child, while at others he
had allowed more to be known than Mr. Semple, for instance, would have
thought wise. He had lately become more reserved in his dealings with
their neighbour at La Dorada, and began almost to try to discount the
fact that he had ever consulted Purvis at all about his affairs. He
lightly waved aside any information that was given him, and was always
busy at the moment when Purvis wanted a few words with him. He advised
Toffy to say, if he were asked, that Sir John Falconer was making
inquiries, and that for the present they themselves were not going to
move in the matter. Toffy and Ross both thought that they had gone too
far to make such an attitude possible. 'What harm can it do to find
out what he knows?' Ross said more than once.

But Peter still held back. 'I hate his confounded mysteries,' he said,
'and I don't attach much importance to things that are only known in a
back-stairs sort of way.'

This afternoon in his letter to Jane he had given it as his opinion
that the little man who they had thought might help them was proving to
be rather a fraud. 'He is always starting ideas,' wrote Peter, 'and
nothing comes of them. Why, bless me, you would think that Argentine
was peopled with unclaimed babies and stiff with missing heirs.'

He felt better when he had unbosomed himself to Jane and had got rid of
some of his impatience and ill-temper.

'I think I 'll ride to the post presently,' he said, getting up and
stretching himself; 'it must get cooler soon.'

Purvis got up also from his little wooden seat by the fireplace. 'I
'll come with you,' he said. 'I am expecting letters which may want my
immediate attention, and I can call at the telegraph office on my way.
May I give you my company so far?' he asked. There was a touch of the
lackey about Purvis, and his voice was humble sometimes to the verge of
irritation.

'_Como no?_' said Peter lazily, in the formula of the country. His
tone was not enthusiastic. Purvis was so prone to circumlocution that
the fact that he had asked deliberately to accompany him on the ride
towards the mail in the cool of the evening convinced him that the man
could have nothing of importance to say.

They rode together over the sho