"You! Oh, this is mean and cruel! I did not think that you would act the spy and hunt us down. Let him go—let him go quietly; and, if you want to harm any one, hurt me. I will not move, or cry out, no matter how much you beat me—only let my poor father go, and do not tell any one you have seen him."
Now, Ralph had been standing in silence, too surprised to say anything. Despite what Mr. St. Clive had said, he had some sort of idea that this man must, in some way, know of his father's disappearance, even if he himself had no hand in it, just as he still thought that Charlton knew more about the missing note than any one else, though that suspicion was beginning to weaken considerably now.
But as he looked from the boy to the man, and as he heard that pathetic appeal, every feeling, save that of pity, vanished. This man should not be captured, not if he could hinder it; and he said, advancing a step, and holding out one hand in friendship—
"Why, Charlton, you don't think as meanly of me as that, do you? I neither want to harm you nor your father, though it is quite true that I came here to find you."
"But—why? How did you know that we should be here?" questioned the boy, not yet reassured.
And Ralph hurriedly explained how he had followed the trap and come upon the policemen.
"I felt certain that it must be your father whom they were after," he said; "and so I determined to come through the wood to try to find you and give you warning. We must be quick, or there will be no chance of getting away."
"Oh, father," wailed Charlton, "I wish that I had not persuaded you to come here again! You will be taken! What shall we do?"
"My boy," answered the man calmly, "try and be brave. We owe our thanks to this young gentleman for the kindly warning he has brought. If I must be taken, I must; and I will try to bear it patiently, though it is very hard. It is strange that they should have Lord Elgert's trap," he added bitterly. "Elgert has been at the bottom of all my troubles."