confidence in my truthfulness.

CHAPTER VIII.

ANOTHER SEARCH.

Half-past eight o'clock in the morning. The gong had sounded, and we had
all assembled in the library for prayers. All but Aleck, who, for the
first time since he had been with us at Braycombe, was not in his usual
place.

My father missed him, and turned to ask me where he was.

"I expect he has gone out, papa," I replied; "he meant to go down to the
shore to look for his boat."

"If you please, sir," said Bennet the footman, "I saw Master Gordon
quite early this morning, maybe about six o'clock; he telled me he was
going down to look after the ship."

Family prayer was concluded and breakfast began, and still Aleck did not
appear. As he had no watch, it was not surprising that he should
mistake the time to a certain extent; but we all wondered he should be
so very late, and at last my father began to feel uneasy. "He must have
been a long way off not to have heard the eight o'clock bell," he said;
"yet he's a careful boy; it seems unlikely he should come to any harm."

"Run out on the lawn, Willie," suggested my mother, "and take a good
look round; perhaps he may be in sight."

But although I put a liberal interpretation upon the direction, and not
only ran out upon the lawn, but also down the drive for a little way,
and up the overhanging bank, from which we could got a sight far off
towards the White-Rock Cove, I could see nothing of my cousin, and
returned breathless to the dining-room without the tidings that my
parents expected.

The post had come in whilst I was out, and my father was engaged in the
perusal of a letter from Uncle Gordon, reading little bits of it aloud
to my mother as he went on. "Just starting for the Pyrenees ... need
send no letters for a fortnight ... address Poste Restante, Marseilles,
after this; the constant change of air has done wonders," &c. &c. When
the letter was finished, I saw there was one enclosed for Aleck, which
according to custom I laid upon his plate, repeating, at the same time,
that I had looked in every direction, but could see nothing of my
cousin.

"He must have gone down to the lodge, and perhaps Groves kept him,
finding it was late, and gave him something to take," said my mother.
Whereupon my father rung the bell, and desired Bennet to go down at once
to the lodge and inquire whether Master Gordon had been there, whilst in
the mean time I finished my breakfast, and was sent to the s