The two sat down, while Prescott related all he knew of the story, beginning with his first meeting the lad; telling Mrs. Holl’s story as nearly in her own words as he could recall it, at which point the tears flowed fast again from the eyes of both the old man and Miss Heathcote. He then simply said that the boy Evan, who was with Frank down in Yorkshire, had recognised the crest, upon an old letter of Captain Bradshaw’s, as being identical with the one owned by James’s mother. When he had done, Captain Bradshaw said:— “Thank you very much for what you have done in this case; and now how shall we get the boy here?” “I think, sir, if you will allow me, I will go down to the livery stables at Knightsbridge and get an invalid carriage, and order it to come round here at once with a couple of men. Then we will walk round together, and I will go in first and prepare him for it.” “Thank you, Mr. Prescott; thank you very much.” And Alice Heathcote looked a thank-you which far more than repaid Prescott for his exertions. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER VII OWNED AT LAST. Prescott went with Captain Bradshaw and Alice Heathcote as far as the street in which the Holls lived, the carriage waiting in Sloane Street until wanted. Then Prescott pointed out the house, and asked the others to wait near for a few minutes until he should summon them. He then lifted the latch and went in. “I am back sooner than I expected, Mrs. Holl. Do not leave, James,” as the boy was preparing to wheel himself away; “I wish you to hear what I have to say. James, it must, no doubt, have often seemed hard to you that you should have no one in the world with whom you are really connected, whose care and love you had a right to claim.” “Sometimes it has, sir,” the cripple said quietly, “but I need not have thought so. No one could have loved me more or have been kinder to me than mother and father here,” and he took Mrs. Holl’s hand in his. “Yes, James, you have been indeed fortunate in that respect, but others might have, perhaps, had it in their power to lighten your life more, to have taken you to see the world, and the wonders and beauties of it.” The lad’s eyes brightened. “They might, sir, and I own—it is wrong and sinful perhaps—but the one thing I have always longed for was to see the country, and the wide fields and the green trees I have read of, and above all to see the sea, the great moving infinite sea. Oh, how glorious it must be! But there, sir,” he said, resuming his quiet manner, “it wasn’t to be, you know, and it is not for me to complain. Why do you ask such questions, sir?” “I will tell you, James,” and here Prescott went slowly and plainly through the narrative of the quarrel of James’s mother with her father, of her flight, and of the treachery of Barton in concealing the fact of his existence from Captain Bradshaw.