The servant retired, and in a moment or two returned with our good friend the pedlar. But Joshua Brown's face, upon the present occasion, bore an expression which, in the course of their short acquaintance, Colonel Middleton had never seen it assume. It was a sort of hesitating, undecided expression, very different from the frank and easy, though unpresuming, manner which he generally displayed in addressing persons whom he looked upon as his superiors. Henry remarked it; but at the same time he treated the man exactly as he would otherwise have done, saying-- "Sit down, Brown: I am very glad to see you. Have you brought me any information?" "A little, sir," replied the pedlar; "but I am sorry to say it is not all good. About the pocket-book----" "Oh, never mind the pocket-book for the present," said Colonel Middleton; "that is of very little consequence, compared with the certificate." "I am glad to hear you say so, sir," answered the pedlar: "I hope you may think so still, when I've told you all. As to the certificate, there it is. I thought I should know my way back. I don't forget very easily; and I walked yesterday, straight as a line, to the place where I thought it was to be found. The old clerk's dead, and a dapper young fellow in his place, who found it out in a minute. You owe me half-a-crown, sir, for that." "A great deal more," said Colonel Middleton, his eyes fixed thoughtfully upon the paper. "St. Mary's, Westfield," he continued, reading aloud: "how far is that from town?" "About sixteen miles, sir," replied the man. "Is that the gentleman's name you expected to find?" "Exactly," replied Henry, placing the paper in his writing-desk: "it only confirms what I knew before." "Humph!" said the pedlar, in a very peculiar tone; but he added something more, and Henry, looking up, said-- "Now for the pocket-book, my good friend." "Why, I suppose you guess, sir, by this time, that I have not got it," replied the pedlar; "and I am sorry to say we shall never get it now." "Indeed!" exclaimed Colonel Middleton, in a tone of surprise and disappointment. "How has that happened? Have they destroyed it?" "They have, sir," said Joshua Brown, "and that in my presence, too;" and he looked in the face of Colonel Middleton with a keen and inquisitive expression, as if seeking to form a judgment, from what he there beheld, regarding some doubtful questions in his own mind. "That is unpleasant," said Colonel Middleton, in a grave but ordinary, matter-of-fact tone, as if he had lost in the pocket-book the value of a thousand pounds or more.