Ainsleigh scoffed. "Why she spied on Olivia and told Miss Wharf, what we would rather had been kept silent." "I don't think you acted quite fairly towards Miss Wharf." "That is my business. I don't intend to defend myself," was the young man's reply, "did you come to discuss this matter?" "No. I came to ask how this matter would effect your future." "In what way?" "In the way you stand with your creditors." Rupert did not reply immediately. The two were walking on the lawn, but Rupert entered the door of the Abbey and strolled round the ruins with Forge by his side. He mistrusted the man intensely. "I should like to know if you are my friend?" he asked, giving utterance to this mistrust. "Surely I am," was the quiet reply, "why should you think me to be otherwise. Because I marry Miss Pewsey?" "No. You can marry whom you choose. I have nothing to do with that. Dr. Forge, But when you were my guardian, why did you not tell me that the property was so encumbered?" "I wanted your boyhood to be unclouded. And also," he added, seeing Rupert make a gesture of contempt, "I thought you might get money from China." Rupert started. "What do you mean by that?" "Well," said Forge deliberately and looking on the ground, "you know that your father and I invested in a gold mine on the Hwei River? Well we worked it for a long time until your father died of dysentery--" "Are you sure he died of dysentery?" asked Ainsleigh sharply. "So far as I know he did," was Forge's patient reply, "as I told you before, I was in Pekin when he died. But if you are in doubt you should go to China and ask Lo-Keong." "What has he to do with it?" "This much," said Forge quietly, "and I am telling you, what I have kept hitherto from every living creature. Your father and I made money out of the mine--a great sum. I made the most--about ten thousand pounds, but your father made at least eight thousand." "And where is that money?" asked Rupert anxiously. "Lo-Keong has it. Yes! I went to Pekin to get a concession with regard to buying or leasing more land. I left your father with Lo-Keong. He was at that time a kind of foreman. But also, he was in the confidence of the rebellious Boxer leaders. These threatened to undermine the power of the Dowager Empress, who was not then, so strong as she is now. As a matter of fact, Lo-Keong himself was a leader of the Boxers. He came to us in disguise, and worked up until he became our foreman; but he did this, because he heard that the mine was paying, and wanted money--" "Your money?" asked Ainsleigh deeply interested. "Yes, and the money belonging to your father--in all, eighteen thousand pounds. When I was at Pekin, your father, who did not understand the Chinese so well as I did, managed to make trouble--" "In what way?" "He interfered with the religion of the coolies in some way--a most disastrous thing to do. Lo-Keong took advantage of the riot and robbed your father of the eighteen thousand pounds."