Presently he noticed that the door was ajar, and he crept up and peered in. Something might, perhaps, give him an idea of who the present occupants were.
At that moment the child cameinto the hall and saw his face. Her shriek of ‘Aunty!’ brought up Mrs. Turvey, and the result was that Gurth Egerton glided rapidly away, satisfied on two points—that the child was only his housekeeper’s niece, and that he was evidently supposed to have been drowned in the Bon Espoir, and was now a full-blown ghost.
Soon after that he saw the advertisements for proofs of his death in the papers, and also a request that ‘Mr. George Englehardt,’ the rescued passenger, would call on Messrs. Grigg and Limpet.
Evidently the ghost story had been put about, and there was a difficulty in deciding that his property could be dealt with.
He had never intended that it should be. Long before the time when a penny could be touched or anything be sold, he would take his place in society again, with a marvellous tale, if necessary, of his adventures and hairbreadth escapes.
He wanted to wait until he was quite certain that the clergyman of the Bon Espoir had not been rescued, and then, all fear being over, the sea should give up her dead.
His time of concealment was, however, considerably shortened by an accident.
Standing under a doorway one evening to escape a violent storm, he heard a cry from the opposite side, and the next moment he saw Grigg and Limpet’s clerk hurrying towards him.
Obeying his first impulse, he ran away; but Jabez caught him up and seized him by the arm.
Then he felt that all concealment was at an end.