"A very strange note!" murmured Overtop. "Young girls are not apt to complain of being burdens, or to take such misanthropic views of life. There is a man's hand in this. That wretch, Van Quintem, jr., without a doubt. Did you never warn Miss Minford against him?" "Once," said Mrs. Crull, with a faint choke in her voice. "I had noticed his glances toward her at the inquest, and I told her he was a bad young man, and she must not allow him to speak to her in the street, and that, if he should come to my house to see her, I should shut the door in his face." "And what did she say to that?" "She said all she knew about him was, that he had saved her life once. She couldn't forget that. Then I showed her how improper it was in him to hide his own name from her, and what horrid holes these gambling dens was which he goes to. I also p'inted out how unfeelin' his conduct was to his poor old father." "And what did she say to all that?" "She nodded her head, and said, 'Yes, so it was;' but I see, now, that all my talk didn't make no impression on her." "The sum of it is," said Overtop, "that she loves this worthless vagabond, and knew that you would not permit his visits to your house. Therefore she has left you." Mrs. Crull was a woman of firmness as well as affection. She regretted that her opposition to this young man should have been the means of driving Pet away. But she knew that she had done what any prudent mother would have done for her own child. "I'm sorry it has come to this," said she; "but I did it all for the best, Heaven knows. Gen'lemen, we must find this child. But how?" Tiffles, being a man of infinite expedients, and accustomed to solve problems for himself, and everybody else, at the shortest notice, answered at once: "_Not_ by advertising for her, or putting the police on her track. Young Van Quintem would take the alarm, and move her out of town. She will go anywhere with him, if I mistake not, until she finds him out better. Have you no clue to her whereabouts; or can you think of any one that could give us any information?" Mrs. Crull reflected. "Unless I am much mistaken," said she, "I saw that tall, clean-looking boy, Bog, I believe they call him--you remember him at the inquest--walking on t'other side o' the street, two or three times since Pet come to live with me. He looked sideways and kind o' sheepish at the house as he passed. I've a notion that he was a lover of Pet's, too." "He's the man, or boy, for us!" cried Tiffles. "Is in the bill-posting business, and knows the town better than I do, if anything. A shrewd fellow, judging from his looks; and, if he's in love with Miss Minford, then he's sure never to tire of hunting her up. He must disguise himself, and find young Van Quintem, and follow him day and night, till he brings up at Miss Minford. That's the shortest road. When Miss Minford has been found, then we will consider what is to be done next."