Here the conversation ended for the time being. Herries remained in his hiding-place, and Kind strolled round the neighbourhood selling goods, and keeping his eyes open. Armour, contrary to his expectation, was not dismissed, and Elspeth stopped with him and his wife, paying visits ostensibly to Mrs. Kind, but really to Herries, at the caravan. The lovers grew fonder of one another every day, and Elspeth urged Herries to leave the neighbourhood, lest he should be captured. But this he would not do, as he wanted to find out how Maud Tedder took the news that she had been disinherited, and also he desired to learn what difference her disinheriting would make to Kyles' affections. If he was after the money solely, he would probably break the engagement, and return to Señora Guzman, and the "Tarabacca." If, however, he really loved the girl, he would undoubtedly try and get Herries hanged in order that she should get the fortune. But Kind could learn nothing, as after the funeral and the reading of the will, Ritson had gone to Paris for a few days, and Miss Tedder went up to London, together with Mrs. Mountford and the Captain. Without doubt they had gone to see if the will would "hold water," as the saying is, and were taking counsel's opinion on the matter. At least that was Sweetlips' surmise. The "Marsh Inn" had settled down to its old ways. Mrs. Narby procured a slip of a girl in place of Elspeth, and treated her just as badly. Once or twice she met with her former slave in the village and scowled viciously, but she neither spoke to her, nor made any assault, which Elspeth quite expected her to do, seeing what a virago the landlady was. Perhaps the fact that Elspeth boarded at Armour's had to do with Mrs. Narby's meekness, for the woman and her husband were highly suspicious characters, and were suspected by more than one person of smuggling goods. At the back of the inn was a waterway, known as the Red Creek, from the colour of the mud on its shores, and here, it was reported, boats used to come up from the river laden with contraband goods. Armour had often watched but as yet had not been able to implicate Mr. and Mrs. Narby in wrongdoing. All the same, the couple kept quiet, and did not cross the policeman's path lest ill should come of their doing so. It was certain, therefore, that Mrs. Narby's avoidance of Elspeth, lay in the fact that she was under Armour's roof. And she was very glad of the refuge. Meanwhile Señora Guzman made no move either to see Sweetlips, or to seek out the political assassin. Perhaps she was waiting until such time as Kind would produce Herries, and then, when the accused man was in her presence, she might have made up her mind to speak out. Several times, the two men discussed the advisability of trusting the Mexican lady, but Elspeth always insisted that her lover should remain where he was until her father should be found.