ot many
fears on the subject; still I agreed that it would be better to be on
the safe side.

Harry and Reginald spent that night on shore, and the next day returned
to Portsmouth. It was on the evening of that day, as I happened to be
passing the inn where Miss Stafford had left her boxes, when I caught
sight of a strange gentleman coming along the road, and looking about
him as if in search of some house or other. As I passed close to him I
looked in his face, and could not help fancying that he was very like
Harry, only much older, with a very different expression of countenance.
After I had passed him I turned round, when I saw him looking up at the
sign of the inn, and then go without further hesitation up to the door.
I walked on some little way, and stood watching the inn till he came out
again. As I again passed him I felt sure that he was no other than Mr
Biddulph Stafford, from the dark and troubled look I saw on his
countenance. He then went on into the town. As the wind was from the
north-east, and the tide was ebbing, I knew that no wherry was likely to
put off for some time to come, and that I should be able to fall in with
him again before he left the island. I accordingly entered the inn to
learn what I could from the landlord. He presently, taking me into his
private room, confessed that the stranger was no other than the man I
suspected. He had at once made himself known, and asked what had become
of the young lady's trunks, and seemed anxious to have them. The
landlord at once told him that he could not give them, seeing that they
were no longer in his possession, and that, for what he knew to the
contrary, they had long since been destroyed. At last, when he pressed
him, he told him that he had given them to two sailors to carry off into
the middle of the Channel and sink them, thinking that was the best way
of disposing of them. This seemed to satisfy him, and giving the
landlord a guinea, and telling him not to say anything about the matter,
he went off.

"That was not the truth, my friend," I observed.

"It was partly true," answered the landlord, "for you and the old
gentleman who came with you were seamen--I could swear to that; and how
should I know that you didn't sink them away there 'twixt this and
Portsmouth?"

I had no time to argue, the point with the landlord, though of course he
was wrong, as I had to look after Mr Biddulph Stafford. I found him on
the shore, trying to