“MY DEAREST HENRY,--By the papers that I send you, you will see what has occurred. Our dear Edgar is well, indeed better than usual, and I would feel much cheered if it were not for the sad fate of the poor Colonel. This is the last letter that you will ever receive from me. I am going to leave this country never to return, and do not yet know where I will go. Wherever I go I will be with my darling Edgar. Do not worry about me or about him. It will be better for you to try and forget all about us, since we are from this time the same as dead to you. Good-by forever, my dearest husband; it shall be my daily prayer that God may bless you. “Your affectionate wife, MARY.” Brandon read this in silence, and handed it back. “A strange letter,” said Compton mournfully. “At first it gave a bitter pang to think of my Mary thus giving me up forever, so coldly, and for no reason: but afterward I began to understand why she wrote this. “My belief is, that these villains kept my son in their clutches for some good reason, and that they had some equally good reason for keeping her. There’s some mystery about it which I can’t fathom. Perhaps she knew too much about the Colonel’s affairs to be allowed to go free. They might have detained her by working upon her love for her son, or simply by terrifying her. She was always a timid soul, poor Mary. That letter is not her composition: there is not a word there that sounds like her, and they no doubt told her what to write, or wrote out something, and made her copy it. “And now,” said Compton, after another long pause, “I have got to the end of my story. I know nothing more about them. I have lived here ever since, at first despairing, but of late more resigned to my lot. Yet still if I have one desire in life it is to get some trace of these dear ones whom I still love as tenderly as ever. You, my dear boy, with your ability may conjecture some way. Besides, you will perhaps be traveling more or less, and may be able to hear of their fate. This is the condition that I make. I implore you by your pity for a heart-broken father to do as I say and help me. Half! why, I would give all that I have if I could get them back again.” Brandon shuddered perceptibly at the words “heart-broken father;” but he quickly recovered himself. He took Compton’s hand and pressed it warmly. “Dear friend, I will make no objection to any thing, and I promise you that all my best efforts shall he directed toward finding them out.” “Tell them to come to me, that I am rich, and can make them happy.” “I’ll make them go to you if they are alive,” said Brandon. “God bless you!” ejaculated the old man, fervently. Brandon spent the greater part of that day in making business arrangements, and in reading the papers which Compton had preserved containing an account of the Despard murder.