came in from the advertisements they had caused to be put
forth. Everyone was hot-foot for the reward, but so far little of
encouragement had been brought out. More and more the young man was
fixing his mind on the idea that Candace had something to do with
Betty's disappearance, so he was leaving no stone unturned to find the
nurse as well as the girl. To this end he insisted on seeing personally
and cross-examining every person who came claiming to have a clue to the
lost girl.

That morning, at about the same hour when Candace walked into the office
of the McIntyre Brothers in Boston, James, the butler, much against his
dignity, was ushering a curious person into the presence of the son of
the house. James showed by every line of his noble figure that he
considered this duty beneath his dignity, and that it was only because
the occasion was unusual that he tolerated it for a moment, but the man
who ambled observantly behind him, stretching his neck to see everything
that was to be seen in this part of the great house, that he might tell
about it at the fire-house, failed to get the effect. He was wondering
why in thunder such rich people as these seemed to be, couldn't afford
carpets big enough to cover their whole floors, instead of just having
skimpy little bits of pieces dropped around here and there, that made
you liable to skid all over the place if you stepped on one of them
biasly.

Herbert Hutton lifted his head and watched Abijah Gage slouch into the
room. He measured him keenly and remained silent while Abijah opened up.
There had been many other applicants for that reward that day, with
stories cunningly woven, and facts, substantiated by witnesses, in one
case a whole family brought along to swear to the fabrication; but as
yet Herbert had not found a promising clue to his missing bride, and the
time was going by. In a few days it would be too late, and his
undisciplined spirit raged within him. It was not only his bride he
wanted, it was her fortune, which was worth any trouble he might take;
and every day, every hour, every minute now, it was slipping, slipping,
slipping from his eager grasp.

Abijah was a little overawed in the presence of this insolent man of the
world, but he felt he had, for almost the first time in his life, Truth
on his side, and he was strong in the power of it. With a cunning equal
to the one that matched him he dealt out his information bit by bit,
giving only enough at a ti