nk
no more about it; but if ye didn't then there it is, an' you ought to
see it, that's sure!"

The two men drew eagerly together and studied the trembling lines:

"It's his writing all right," murmured one, under his breath, and the
brother nodded gravely:

"You say that this was the original of a letter that was given to you to
mail to us?"

Candace nodded.

"It's what he wrote first, and got ink on it, an' then wrote it over. I
can't say what changes he made, as I didn't read it, but this he gave to
me to burn, and before I gets it burned my lady comes in and takes the
letter from me while he was sleepin'; and so I hid the bit papers,
thinkin' they might be a help to wee Betty sometime. And oh, can ye
tell me anything of my little Lady Betty? Is she safe? Did she come to
you for refuge? You needn't be afraid to tell me. I'll never breathe a
word----!"

The two brothers exchanged quick glances of warning and the elder man
spoke:

"My good woman, we appreciate your coming, and these papers may prove
very useful to us. We hope to be able to clear up this matter of Miss
Stanhope's disappearance very soon. She did not come to us, however, and
she is not here. But if you will step into the room just beyond and wait
for a little while we may be able to talk this matter over with you."

Very courteously he ushered the plump, apprehensive little woman into
the next room and established her in an easy leather chair with a
quantity of magazines and newspapers about her, but she kept her little
head cocked anxiously on one side, and watched the door like a dog whose
master has gone in and shut the way behind him; and she never sat back
in her chair nor relaxed one iota during the whole of the two hours that
she had to wait before she was called at last to the inner office where
she found the handsome young man whom she remembered seeing at the
wedding.

She presently found that Reyburn was as keen as he was handsome, but if
she hadn't remembered him at the wedding as a friend of that nice Mrs.
Cochrane, she never would have made it as easy as she did for him to
find out things from her, for she could be canny herself on occasion if
she tried, and she did not trust everybody.

CHAPTER XVI

THE mysterious disappearance of Candace from the Stanhope house caused
nothing short of a panic. Herbert and his mother held hourly wrangles,
and frantically tried one thing and then another. Day after day the
responses