en to you, I won't eat, I won't sleep, until I've seen him.
I'll go to him at once."

"I must come, too," urged the rector weakly. Yet, the thought of facing
the miser's taunts at such a time filled him with unspeakable dread. And
he could not tell her that Dick's arrest was imminent.

"Have some food, dearest, and go afterward."

"I couldn't eat. It would choke me," Mrs. Swinton said, rebelliously.

Netty, hearing her mother's voice, came into the room, her eyes red with
weeping.

"You've heard, mother?" she cried, plaintively.

"I've heard, Netty. To-morrow Mrs. Bent will be sorry. We're no longer
paupers, Netty."

"Why, grandfather isn't dead?"

"No, but we are rich. He's a thief. We've always been rich. Your
grandfather has robbed us of hundreds of thousands--all my mother's
fortune. I've only just found it out to-day from a lawyer."

"Oh, the villain!" cried Netty. "But I shall be jilted all the same. Dick
has ruined and disgraced us all. I'm snubbed--jilted--thrown over,
because my brother is a felon."

"Silence, Netty. There are other people in the world beside yourself to
think of," cried the rector.

"Well, nobody ever thinks of me," sobbed the girl, angrily.

There was a loud rattling at the front door. The rector started, and
listened in terror.

"Too late!" he groaned, dropping into a chair. "It's the police!"

"John, you have betrayed me--after all!" screamed his wife, looking
wildly around like a hunted thing.

He bowed his head in assent. He misunderstood her meaning. "Ormsby has
been here. He found out--by a slip of the tongue."

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE WILL

The police had arrived with a warrant to search the house. Mrs. Swinton
seemed turned to stone. The rector drooped his head in resignation, and
stood with hands clenched at his side, looking appealingly at his wife.
He said nothing, but his eyes beseeched her to be brave, to say the words
that would save her son, to surrender in the name of truth and justice.

She understood, but refused; and the police proceeded with their search.

Now that further concealment was useless, they were led upstairs. Dick,
lying in his deck-chair, heard them coming, and guessed what had
happened. He dropped his book upon his lap, and, when the police
inspector and the detective entered the room, he was quite prepared.

"Well, so you've found me," he cried, with a laugh. "It's no good your
thinking of taking me, unless you've brought a stre