"Without success, too, sir," added Morcar.
"We shall now leave you," continued Richard, turning towards the Buffer; "but rest well assured that, though we forbear from molesting you, justice will some day overtake you in your evil and wayward courses."
"That's my look out," cried the Buffer, brutally.
Markham turned away in disgust, and descended to the boat, followed by Morcar and Benstead.
"We will now proceed to the wharf where I hired the Blossom," said Richard, when they had pushed off from the Fairy; "and, my good friends, there I shall dispense with your further services. The owner of the lighter can send his men to Rotherhithe to bring it up, and thus save us a task which is somewhat beyond our skill."
"It is a great pity we have failed to capture the miscreant," observed Morcar.
"But your reward has not been the less fairly and honestly earned," replied Richard; "as I will prove to you when we land."
CHAPTER CLXX.
THE BLACK VEIL.
Return we now to one whom we have long left, but whom the reader cannot have forgotten.
In a sumptuously furnished room at the house of Mr. Wentworth, the surgeon of Lower Holloway, Diana Arlington was reclining upon a sofa.