"And who do you think was our first messenger? Ah! you will hardly guess. Why, none other than Prince, your pony. We were sitting at breakfast very dull, and imagining all sorts of things, when Harry hurried into the room, as white as if he had just seen a ghost, and cried out, `Master, master! here's Prince come back all alone, and never a word about poor dear Master Amos!' You may be sure this did just upset us all, and no mistake. I was out in the stable-yard in a moment, and there was Prince sure enough, and all the servants round him; and they had got a stable bucket with some corn in it, and he was devouring it as though he had been starved for a week. `And where's your master, Prince?' I said. The poor animal only whinnied, but seemed almost as if he understood my question. As for Harry, who had joined me in the yard, he could only blubber out, `Eh! he's done for, sure enough. They've been and gone and murdered him, and haven't had even the good feeling to send us back his lifeless corpse. Whatever shall we do?' `Nay, Harry,' I said, `it hasn't come to that yet; we must go and look after him, and bring him back; he'll turn up all right, I daresay.'--`The Lord grant it,' said the dear old man. "Well, you may be sure we were all in a pretty state, and at our wits' end what to do. Father set off at once for the police station, and Harry and I started at the same time for Marley Heath." Here Miss Huntingdon interposed, and said, "And I ought to tell you, dear Amos, that when your father was feeling a little anxious about Walter's going, lest he too should fall into some snare or difficulty, your brother would not hear of any one else taking his place, and rushed away saying, `It would be a privilege to suffer anything for such a brother as Amos.'" "Auntie, auntie!" cried her nephew remonstratingly, "you mustn't tell secrets; I never meant Amos to know anything about that."