It appeared that the groom shared this feeling strongly. In passing through the yard, I came upon him in his shirt sleeves, seated outside the stable door on an inverted bucket. His elbows on his knees and his face in his hands, he looked the image of despair. The picture arrested me. Mack was rubbing down the horses; a duty Giles rarely entrusted to anybody. He was fond of Don, and had been ready to hang himself ever since Tuesday night. "Why, Giles! what's the matter?" "Matter enough, Master Johnny, when a false villyan like that Dick Standish can take the master, and the police their-selves, and everybody else, in!" was his answer. "I felt as cock-sure, sir, that we should bring home Don as I am that the sky above us is shining out blue after the last shower." "But it was not Don, you see, Giles." "_He_ wasn't; the dog Standish had to show," returned Giles, with a peculiar emphasis. "Dick had got up his tale all smooth and sleek, sir." "How do you know he had?" "Because he told it me over again--the one he said he had been telling at the police station, Master Johnny. I was standing outside the inn yard while you were all in at lunch, and Standish came by as bold as brass, Brazer's dog, Rover, leashed to his hand." "I suppose it is Brazer's dog?" "Oh, it's Brazer's dog, that'un be," said Giles, with a deep amount of scorn; "I know _him_ well enough." "Then how can it be Don? And we could not bring home another man's dog." Giles paused. His eyes had a far-off look in them, as if seeking for something they could not find. "Master Johnny," he said, "I can't rightly grasp things. All the way home I've been trying to put two and two together, I am trying at it still, and I can't do it anyhow. Don't it seem odd to you, sir, that Standish should have got Brazer's dog, Rover, into his hands just at the very time we are suspecting he has got Don into 'em?" I did not know. I had not thought about it. "He has that dog of Brazer's as a blind. A blind, and nothing else, sir. He has captured our dog, safe and sure, and is keeping him hid up somewhere till the first storm of the search is over, when he'll be able to dispose of him safely." I could not see Giles's drift, or how the one dog could help to conceal the possession of the other. "Well, sir, I can't explain it better," he answered; "I can't fit the pieces of the puzzle into one another in my mind _yet_. But I am positive it is so. Dick Standish has made up the farce about Brazer's dog and got him into his hands to throw dust in our eyes and keep us off the scent of Don." I began to see the groom might be right; and that the Standishes, sly and crafty, were keeping Don in hiding. Mrs. Todhetley had met us with a face of concern. Lena's throat was becoming very bad indeed, and Mr. Duffham did not like the look of it at all. He had already come twice that day.