"Patience under unmerited suffering was never amongst my virtues, and in various ways I assailed those who had attacked me. I ridiculed the lawyer who had conducted the defence, sneered at his law, exposed his ignorance of chemistry, and, carried away by that fatal ardor of acrimony I never knew how to restrain, I more than suggested that, when he appealed to Heaven in the assertion of his client's innocence, he held in his possession a written confession of his guilt. For this an action of libel was brought against me; the damages were assessed at five hundred pounds, and I spent four years in a jail to acquit the debt. Judge, then, with what memories I ever referred to that event of my life. It was, perhaps, the one solitary incident in which I had resisted a strong temptation. I was offered a large bribe to fail in my analysis, and yet it cost me all the prosperity it had taken years of labor to accomplish!

"Imprisonment had not cooled my passion. The first thing which I did when free was to dramatize the trial for one of those low pot-houses where Judge and Jury scenes are represented; and so accurately did I caricature my enemy, the counsel, that he was actually laughed out of court and ruined. If I could have traced the other actors in the terrible incident, I would have pursued them with like rancor; but I could not: they had left England, and gone Heaven knows where or how!

As to the orphan girl, whose interest I had sworn to watch over, any care for her now would only have insulted my own misery; my rage was blind and undiscriminating, and I would not be guided by reason. It was, therefore, in a spirit of unreflecting vengeance that I never took any steps regarding her, but preserved, even to this hour, a letter to her guardian,--it is there, in that pocket-book,--which might perhaps have vindicated her right to wealth and fortune. 'No,' thought I, 'they have been _my_ ruin; I will not be the benefactor of one of them!'

"I kept my word; and even when my own personal distresses were greatest, I would not have raised myself out of want at the price of relinquishing that revenge. I have lived to think and feel more wisely," said he, after a pause; "I have lived to learn the great lesson that every mishap of my life was of my own procuring, and that self-indulgence and a vindictive spirit are enough to counterbalance tenfold more than all the abilities I ever possessed. The world will no more confide its interests to men like me than they will take a tiger for a house-dog. I want to make some reparation for this wrong, Alfred. I want to seek out this person I have spoken of, and, if this girl still live, to place her in possession of her own. You will help me in this, will you not?"

It was not without a burning impatience that young Layton had listened to his father's narrative; he was eager to tell him that his friend the Colonel had already addressed himself to the enterprise, all his interests being engaged by the journals and letters he had collected when in Ireland. Alfred now, in a few hurried words, related all this, and told how, at that very hour, Quackinboss was eagerly prosecuting the inquiry. "He has gone down to Norfolk in search of this Winthrop," said he.

"He will not find him there," said old Layton. "He left Norfolk, for the Far West, two years back. He settled at Chicago, but he has not remained there. So much I have learned, and it is all that is known about him."

"Let us go to Chicago, then," said Alfred.

"It is what I would advise. He is a man of sufficient note and mark to be easily traced. It is a well-known name, and belongs to a family much looked up to. These are my credentials, if I should ever chance to come up with him."

As he spoke, he unclasped a very old and much-worn leather pocket-book, searching through whose pages he at last found what he sought for. It was a leaf, scrawled over in a trembling manner, and ran thus: "Consult the bearer of this, Dr. Layton, about Clara; he is my only friend at this dreadful hour, and he is to be trusted in all things. Watch well that they who have murdered _me_ do not rob _her_. He will tell you--"

It concluded thus abruptly, but was signed firmly, "Godfrey Hawke, Nest, Jersey," with the date; and underneath, "To Harvey Winthrop, Norfolk, D.

S."

"This would be a meagre letter of credit, Alfred, to most men; but I have heard much of this same Winthrop. All represent him as a fine-hearted, generous fellow, who has done already much to trace out his niece, and restore to her what she owns. If we succeed in discovering him, I mean to offer my services to search out the girl.

I saw, a short time before I left England, one of the men who were implicated in the murder. I knew him at once. The threat of reviving the old story of shame will soon place him in my power, if I can but find him; and through _him_ I am confident we shall trace _her_."

To understand the ardor with which the old man entered upon this inquiry, one must have known the natures of those men to whom the interest of such a search has all the captivation of a game. It was, to his thinking, like some case of subtle analysis, in which the existence of a certain ingredient was to be tested; it was a problem requiring all his acuteness to solve, and he addressed himself to the task with energy and zeal. The young man was not slow to associate himself in the enterprise; and in his desire for success there mingled generous thoughts and more kindly sympathies, which assuredly did not detract from the interest of the pursuit.

The theme engrossed all their thoughts; they discussed it in every fashion, speculated on it in every shape, pictured to themselves almost every incident and every stage of the inquiry, imagining the various obstacles that might arise, and planning how to overcome them. Thus journeying they arrived at Chicago, but only to learn that Winthrop had left that city, and was now established farther to the westward, at a place called Gallina. Without halting or delay they started for Gallina.

The road was a new and a bad one, the horses indifferent, and the stages unusually long. It was on the fourth evening of the journey that they arrived at a small log-house on the skirt of a pine wood, at which they were given to expect fresh horses. They were disappointed, however, for the horses had already been sent to bring up two travellers from Gallina, and who had taken the precaution of securing a rapid transit.

"We are here, then, for the night," said old Layton, with a faint sigh, as he endeavored to resign himself to the delay.

"Here they come!" said the host of the log-hut, as the rattle of a heavy wagon was heard from the dense wood. "Our sheriff don't let the moss grow under his feet Listen to the pace he 's coming."

Seated, with his son beside him, on the wooden bench before the door, the old man watched the arrival of the newcomers. The first to descend from the wagon was a man somewhat advanced in life, but hale and stout, with a well-bronzed face, and every semblance of a vigorous health. He saluted the host cordially, and was received with a sort of deference only accorded to men of official station. He was followed by a younger man, but who displayed, as he moved, evident signs of being fatigued by the journey.

"Come, Seth," said the elder, "let us see what you have got for our supper, for we must be a-moving briskly."

"Well, sheriff, there ain't much," said the host; "and what there is you 'll have to share with the two gentlemen yonder; they've just come East, and are waitin' for you to get a morsel to eat."

"Always glad to chance on good company," said the sheriff, saluting the strangers as he spoke; and while they were interchanging their greetings, the host laid the table, and made preparation for the meal.

"I must look after my fellow-traveller," said the sheriff; "he seems so tired and jaded. I half fear he will be unable to go on to-night."

He speedily returned with good tidings of his friend, and soon afterwards the party took their places at the supper-table.

The sheriff, like his countrymen generally, was frank and outspoken; he talked freely of the new-settled country, its advantages and its difficulties, and at last, as the night closed in, he made another visit to his friend.

"All right, Seth," said he, as he came back; "we shall be able to push on. Let them 'hitch' the nags as soon as may be, for we 've a long journey before us."

"You're for the Lakes, I reckon?" said Seth, inquiringly.

"Farther than that."

"Up to Saratoga and the Springs, maybe?"

"Farther still."

"Well, you ain't a-goin' to New York at this time of year, sheriff?"

"That am I, and farther still, Seth; I am going to the old country, where I have n't been for more than thirty years, and where I never thought to go again."

"You might visit worse lands, sir," said old Layton, half resentfully.

"You mistook my meaning, stranger," said the other, "if you thought my words reflected on England. There is only one land I love better."

The honest speech reconciled them at once, and with a hearty shake-hands and a kindly wished good journey, they separated.

"Did you remark that man who accompanied the sheriff?" said Layton to his son, as they stood at the door watching the wagon while it drove away.

"Not particularly," said Alfred.

"Well, I did my best to catch sight of him, but I could not It struck me that he was less an invalid than one who wanted to escape observation; he wore his hat slouched over his eyes, and covered his mouth with his hand when he spoke."

The young man only smiled at what he deemed a mere caprice of suspicion, and the subject dropped between them. After a while, however, the father said,--

"What our host has just told me strengthens my impression. The supposed sick man ate a hearty supper, and drank two glasses of stiff brandy-and-water.'

"And if he did, can it concern us, father?" said Alfred, smiling.

"Yes, boy, if we were the cause of the sudden indisposition. He was tired, perhaps, when he arrived, but I saw no signs of more than fatigue in his movements, and I observed that, at the first glance towards us, he hurried into the inner room and never reappeared till he left. I 'm not by any means certain that the fellow had not his reasons for avoiding us."

Rather treating this as the fancy of one whose mind had been long the prey of harassing distrusts than as founded on calmer reason, Alfred made no answer, and they separated for the night without recurring to the subject.

It was late on the following day they reached Gallina. The first question was, if Harvey Winthrop lived there? "Yes; he is our sheriff,"

was the answer. They both started, and exchanged looks of strange meaning.

"And he left this yesterday?" asked old Layton.

"Yes, sir. An Englishman came two days back with some startling news for him,--some say of a great fortune left him somewhere,--and he's off to England to make out his claim."

Old Layton and his son stood speechless and disconcerted. These were the two travellers who had passed them at the log-hut, and thus had they spent some hours, without knowing it, in the company of him they had been travelling hundreds of miles to discover.

"And his friend knew us, and avoided us, Alfred," said old Layton. "Mark that fact, boy, and observe that, where there is ground for fear in one heart, there is reason for hope in some other. We must follow them at once."

CHAPTER XLVII. A HAPPY ACCIDENT

Having written a hurried letter to Quackinboss acquainting him with the causes which should prevent him from keeping his rendezvous at St.

Louis, and informing him how he had met with his father, he briefly mentioned that they were about to return to New York with all speed, in the hope of coming up with Winthrop before he sailed for England. "Come what may," he added, "we shall await you there. We long to meet you, and add your counsels to our own." This letter he addressed to St Louis, and posted at once.

It was ten days after this they reached New York. Their journey had been delayed by a series of accidents,--a railroad smash at Detroit amongst the number; and when they arrived at the capital, it was to learn that the "Asia" had sailed that very morning for Liverpool, and at the agent's office they found that Mr. Harvey Winthrop was a passenger, and with him a certain Mr. Jacob Trover.