elegram.

After breakfast he and Peter slept for a time, for both were dog-tired,
and the day was oppressively hot. In the afternoon a telegram came to
say that no news had been heard of Purvis, and that he was believed to
be still in the neighbourhood of La Dorada.

'If he is,' said Dunbar, folding up the telegram and putting it into
his pocket, 'I think our future duties will not be heavy. The man who
has come to light and told the story of the wreck of the _Rosana_ is a
native of that favoured spot where already our friend Purvis is not too
popular. God help the man if they get hold of him!'

'His little boy is here now,' said Toffy, starting up. 'Purvis came
here to leave him in safety.'

Dunbar was writing another telegram to ask the whereabouts of the
steamer.

'Then,' he said, 'the story is probably known, and Purvis is aware of
it, and has gone north. He daren't show himself near his estancia
after this.'

They began to put the story together, piecing it here and there, while
Dunbar continued to send telegrams.

Ross strolled in presently to discuss the matter again. 'I don't
believe,' he said, 'that Purvis is far off.'

'He is a brave man if he is anywhere near La Dorada,' said Dunbar.

'Purvis is a brave man,' said Ross quietly.

Peter was silent. Only last night he had had good reason to believe
that the mystery of his brother's existence was going to be cleared up.
But with Purvis gone the whole wearisome business would have to begin
again. Why had he not detained the man last night, even if he had had
to do it by force, until he had given him all the evidence he
possessed? He could not exactly blame himself for not having done so.
Purvis had declared that he was only going to Buenos Ayres for a couple
of days, and it would have been absurd to delay him that he might give
information which perhaps he did not fully possess. Still, the thing
had been too cleverly worked out to be altogether a fraud, surely. His
thought went back again to the belief that Purvis had got hold of his
brother, and had extracted a great deal of information from him, and
was only delaying to make him known to Peter until he had arranged the
best bargain he could for himself. Looking back on all the talks they
had had together there was something which convinced him that Purvis's
close application to the search had not been made with a view only of
extracting some hundreds of pounds from him, but that the man's