"I have no wish to pick a quarrel, young man," replied Garstang, sternly; "and I should not have spoken like this if you had not sought me out. Perhaps you had better stay, sir, and hear what your father has to propose, unless he has already taken you into his confidence." "Well, he hasn't," said Claud, sulkily. "Go on, guv'nor, and get it over." "Yes, James Wilton, go on, please, as your son suggests, and get it over. My time is valuable, and in such a case as this, between relatives, I shall be unable to make a charge for legal services. Now then, once more, what do you propose?" "About what?" said Wilton, bluntly. "About the future home of your niece?" "Ah, that's what I've come about," said Wilton, gazing at the other sternly. "Where is she?" Garstang looked at him blankly for a few moments. "Where is she?" he said at last. "What do you mean?" "What I say: where is Kate Wilton?" "Where is she?" cried Garstang, changing his manner, and speaking now with a display of eagerness very different from his calm dignified way of a few minutes before. "Why, you don't mean to say that she has gone?" "Yes, I do mean to say that she has gone." "Bravo!" cried Garstang, putting down the leg he had been nursing, and giving it a hearty slap. "The brave little thing! I should not have thought that she had it in her." "That won't do, John Garstang," said Wilton, sourly; "and it's of no use to act. The law's your profession--not acting. Now then, I want to know where she is." "How should I know, man? She was not placed in my charge." "You know, sir, because it was in your interest to know. This isn't the first time I've known you play your cards, but you're not playing them well: so you had better throw up your hand." "Look here, James Wilton," said Garstang, looking at him curiously; "have you come here to insult me with your suspicions? If this young lady has left your roof, do you suppose I have had anything to do with it?" "Yes, I do, and a great deal," cried Wilton, angrily. "You can't hoodwink me, even if you can net me and fleece me. Do you think I am blind?" "In some things, very," said Garstang, contemptuously-- "Then I'm not in this. I see through your plans clearly enough, but you are checked. Where is that boy of yours?" "I have no boy," said Garstang, contemptuously. "Well, then, where is your stepson?" "I do not know, James Wilton. Harry Dasent has long enough ago taken, as your son here would say, the bit in his teeth. I have not seen him since he came down to your place. But surely," he cried, springing up excitedly, "you do not think--" "Yes, I do think, sir," cried Wilton, rising too; "I am sure that young scoundrel has carried her off. He has been hanging about my place all he could since she has been there, and paying all the court he could to her, and you know it as well as I do, the scoundrel has persuaded her that she was ill-used, and lured her away."