ud English folk usually are. One morning
the gentleman found his pocket-book gone, notes and all. He came into
luncheon full of it, pouring out his indignant wrath to his genial
friends, the Murdochs, who commiserated him, and were as indignant as
he. One of the waiters was suspected. The wretched man declared that he
had seen the gentleman, Mr. Halliwell (the name under which the Murdochs
were then going), coming out of the Australian gentleman's bedroom, that
he had spoken to him, and that Mr. Halliwell had said that he had made a
mistake and just gone inside, but had seen directly his error. The man
was not believed, for there were the Halliwells still staying in the
hotel, going and coming as freely as could be. The next day they paid
their bill (a good long one) and went away, bidding their acquaintances
good-bye, and hoping they should meet in Edinburgh.

After they had gone some way on their journey, Lucy discovered that she
had lost a letter from one of her bad companions in Edinburgh--no other
than the man Andrew, who was one of their accomplices. Fearing she might
have dropped it in the hotel, they made all haste to get to London, but
their journey was delayed at a certain point by the stupidity of a
driver, who had undertaken to drive them to Killochrie, but could not
find the way, the consequence being that they lost their train, and
would be delayed eight hours.

Now Lucy Murdoch had heard of the missing children, and when she stopped
Elsie and Duncan to ask them the way, she immediately supposed, from
what Elsie said, that these were the very ones. Being very clever and
quick-witted, she saw in a moment she could make use of them to forward
her own escape. Driving to the nearest town, she purchased black
ready-made garments, retired to a lonely spot, and dressed herself as a
widow, smoothing back her curled locks under the close round bonnet.
Then she went to the children, dressed them in the clothes she had
bought, walked back to the station, and went on by train to a little
town some twenty miles off, where she spent the night, her husband
having gone first to secure a lodging. On the next day they went on to
Edinburgh under the new name of Donaldson, John Murdoch passing as her
brother, and the children as her fatherless little ones on their way
home from school.

Duncan's illness interfered with her plans, and necessitated her seeking
the help of the man Andrew, while she and her husband went to a
f