s my belief that
there isn't; besides, don't you know that this here old Tower stands on
the solid rock? Why there isn't an inch of ground all round it, into
which I could run a spade if I tried ever so much, and I should like to
see the ghost who could work his way through that: it's all very well
for them as is put under the soft black mould of a churchyard, of
course, if they has a mind to take a turn or two about the world at
midnight, there'd be nothing to prevent them that I sees, except that
the captain says it's impossible."

"Oh, dear! Tom, don't go on to talk in that way; it makes me all over
in a cold shiver to think what has become of poor dear Miss Margery."

Neither Tom nor Becky were possessed of any education of the most
ordinary sort, so they may be excused talking the nonsense to which it
must be confessed they gave utterance on the subject. Poor Mrs Askew
was bewildered with grief and dismay and anxiety as to what had become
of her beloved child. Charley could not believe that Margery would be
guilty of any foolish act, yet when he remembered her conversation in
the morning with Stephen about going to look for her brother in the
South Seas, and her indignation on finding that he would not go, he
thought it just possible that she might have set off by herself with
some wild scheme of the sort in her head; and yet such a proceeding was
so unlike herself that he dismissed the idea as soon as he had conceived
it, and did not even mention it to Captain Askew. If she had gone, it
was not likely that she would get far without being discovered, and they
would soon hear of her. Although Captain Askew was himself a
magistrate, it was necessary to give information of the strange event to
Mr Ludlow, that he might assist in discovering the perpetrators of the
outrage, and Charley Blount volunteered to go over to the Hall for that
object. Some time had already been spent in fruitless search, so
Charley, after he had snatched a hurried breakfast, set off as fast as
his legs could carry him. He was a good runner at all times, but on the
present occasion, believing that the faster he went the sooner dear
little Margery might be recovered, he ran as he had never before run in
his life. Had he been dilatory he might never have reached the Hall at
all, for those who were on the watch for any one leaving the Tower,
believing that he would have gone at an ordinary speed, happily missed
him.

Mr Ludlow was highl