ride from Swainson to see Afy?"

Joyce's face flushed crimson. "Oh, sir!" was all she uttered.

"The name is the same--Thorn; I thought it possible the men might be,"
observed Mr. Carlyle.

"Sir, I cannot say. I never saw that Captain Thorn but once, and I don't
know, I don't know--" Joyce spoke slowly and with consideration--"that
I should at all know him again. I did not think of him when I looked at
this gentleman; but, at any rate, no appearance in this one struck upon
my memory as being familiar."

So from Joyce Mr. Carlyle obtained no clue, one way or the other. The
following day he sought out Otway Bethel.

"Are you intimate with that Captain Thorn who is staying with the
Herberts?" asked he.

"Yes," answered Bethel, decisively, "if passing a couple of hours in his
company can constitute intimacy. That's all I have seen of Thorn."

"Are you sure," pursued Mr. Carlyle.

"Sure!" returned Bethel; "why, what are you driving at now? I called
in at Herbert's the night before last, and Tom asked me to stay the
evening. Thorn had just come. A jolly bout we had; cigars and cold
punch."

"Bethel," said Mr. Carlyle, dashing to the point, "is it the Thorn who
used to go after Afy Hallijohn? Come, you can tell if you like."

Bethel remained dumb for a moment, apparently with amazement. "What a
confounded lie!" uttered he at length. "Why it's no more that than--What
Thorn?" he broke off abruptly.

"You are equivocating, Bethel. The Thorn who is mixed up--or said to
be--in the Hallijohn affair. Is this the same man?"

"You are a fool, Carlyle, which is what I never took you to be yet," was
Mr. Bethel's rejoinder, spoken in a savage tone. "I have told you that
I never knew there was any Thorn mixed up with Afy, and I should like
to know why my word is not to be believed? I never saw Thorn in my life
till I saw him the other night at the Herberts', and that I would take
my oath to, if put to it."

Bethel quitted Mr. Carlyle with the last word, and the latter gazed
after him, revolving points in his brain. The mention of Thorn's name,
the one spoken of by Richard Hare, appeared to excite some feeling in
Bethel's mind, arousing it to irritation. Mr. Carlyle remembered that it
had done so previously and now it had done so again, and yet Bethel was
an easy-natured man in general, far better tempered than principled.
That there was something hidden, some mystery connected with the affair,
Mr. Carlyle felt sure; but he