s know, and his friends know,
also, that there are people who know all about him, and that these
people are very anxious to keep him from learning the truth about
himself. And these people who have been trying to locate this boy
lately are connected with the ones who were with your daughter last
night--people with whom no young woman ought ever to be trusted by her
father!"

Dick was furious by this time at the way in which Mr. Burton treated
him, and he forgot, for the moment, the respect due to age and
infirmity. He regarded Burton as a careless father, who should be made
to understand that he had been criminally careless in allowing so
beautiful a girl to be left in the power of wretches like those who had
been on the boat when it took fire, and he had no mind to be polite and
diplomatic.

"Get out of my room, you impudent young rascal!" shouted Mr. Burton
when he realized what Dick was saying. "Don't you think I can see
through your game, eh?"

He shook his stick threateningly at Dick.

"I'm not afraid of you, sir," said Dick. "I told the truth, and I
think you know it. We're not going to stay here--but I warn you that
you may be sorry before this business is cleared up. You'll trust a
scoundrel like Broom, and yet, when we come to you with an offer to
help you in your search, you insult us!"

Molly Burton, frightened and distressed by the turn matters had taken,
tried to make peace, but her efforts were of no avail. Her father
ordered the two of them out of his rooms, and they could do nothing but
go.

"Well, we didn't gain much by going there," said Dick. "I'm sorry I
lost my temper, Jack, but it would have been pretty hard not to, when
he was talking and acting that way."

"I wonder if he can really be my uncle, though, Dick. I don't know
that I'd be so crazy to have him for a relative, but I would like to
think that pretty girl was my cousin!"

"She's all right, isn't she, Jack? But we have gained something, at
any rate. We've got some sort of a starting point. Now, if we can get
Captain Haskin to help us, we may be able to start with the time when
you turned up at Woodleigh, and trace some of Old Dan's movements. In
that way, you see, it may be possible to get at the truth. It's a
little more than we knew before we went to see them, at any rate."

"I think if we could see Miss Burton alone, Dick, she would treat us
better, and tell us anything she knew."

"I'm sure of that, Jack. I'