“Indeed? At what time was that?” exclaimed my Lady.
“Some time in the afternoon of Sunday!”
“Ah! then I must have left Bowstead. I was pledged to her Majesty’s card-table, and royal commands cannot be disregarded, so I had to go away in grievous anxiety for my poor boy. She meant to return to Bowstead, did she? Ah. Does not an idea strike you that old Amyas Belamour may know more than he confesses! He has been playing a double game throughout.”
“He is as anxious to find the dear girl as we are madam.”
“So he may seem to you and to my poor infatuated boy, but you see those crazed persons are full of strange devices and secrets, as indeed we have already experienced. I see what you would say; he may appear sane and plausible enough to a stranger, but to those who have known him ever since his misfortunes, the truth is but too plain. He was harmless enough as long as he was content to remain secluded in his dark chamber, but now that I hear he has broken loose, Heaven knows what mischief he may do. My dear cousin Delavie, you are the prop left to me in these troubles, with my poor good man in the hands of those cruel pirates, who may be making him work in chains for all I know,” and the tears came into her beautiful eyes.
“They will not do that,” said Major Delavie, eager to reassure her; “I have heard enough of their tricks to know that they keep such game as he most carefully till they can get a ransom.”
“Your are sure of that!”
“Perfectly. I met an Italian fellow at Vienna who told me how it was all managed by the Genoese bankers.”
“Ah! I was just thinking that you would be the only person who could be of use—you who know foreign languages and all their ways. If you could go abroad, and arrange it for me!”
“If my daughter were restored—-” began the Major.