"There has, sir; but don't you think of gipsies and this here matter of Sir Massingberd as having anything to do with one another. They're feeble, feckless bodies at the best. They ain't even good poachers, although my master always bid us beware of them. They would no more have ventured to meddle with the squire, than a flock of linnets would attack a hawk, that's certain." My tutor had been setting down on paper brief notes of his conversation with these two men; but he now put the writing away from him, and inquired what steps, in their judgment, ought to be taken in the matter, and when. "You know your master better than I. If he chanced to come back this afternoon, or to-morrow, or next day, from any expedition he may have chosen to undertake, would he not be much annoyed at any hue and cry having been made after him?" "That he just would," observed the keeper with emphasis. "I would not have been the man to make the fuss," remarked the butler, sardonically, "for more money than he has paid me these ten years." "In a word," observed my tutor, "you are both come here to shift the responsibility of a public search from your own shoulders to mine. Very good. I accept it. Let sufficient hands be procured at once, Bradford, to search the Chase and grounds, and drag the waters. And you, Gilmore, must accompany me, while I set seals on such rooms as may seem necessary up at the Hall." The butler was for moving away on the instant with a "_Very_ well, sir," but Mr. Long added, "Please to wait in Mrs. Myrtle's parlour for me. We must go together." "I don't like the look of that man Gilmore at all, sir," observed I, when the two had left the room. "No, nor I, Peter," returned my tutor, sententiously, as he set about collecting tapes and sealing-wax; "I am afraid he is a rogue in grain." Now, that was not by any means, or rather was very far short of, what I meant to imply; what I had had almost upon my burning lips was, "Don't you think he has murdered Sir Massingberd?" But the moment had gone by for putting the question, even if Mr. Long had not begun to whistle--a sure sign with him that he did not wish to speak upon the matter any further, just at present. CHAPTER V. THE STONE GARDEN.