Horace Dunstan had as yet had time to have but a very few words with his now astonished son. As soon, however, as the party got in a room by themselves Master Ted stepped quickly over to Halstead, holding out his hand.
“I put up as good a fight against you as I could, captain,” he said, “but now I want to apologize and thank you.”
“I knew that time would come,” Halstead laughed, as he took the younger boy’s hand.
“Now we want to understand a few things,” broke in Lawyer Crane. “Master Theodore, you have told us that you went away with strangers in obedience to what you considered written instructions from your father. Who handed you that note?”
“Gambon, dad’s gardener.”
“What did the note say?”
“The note said my inheritance was in great danger, and the two boys dad had hired to run the ‘Meteor’ were in the plot against me. I was told to go to the men to whom Gambon would take me and to follow their instructions in everything for a few days.”
“And you believed all that?” demanded the lawyer.
“Yes. Why not?” challenged Master Ted. “I thought the note was in dad’s own writing and he had always told me the truth about everything.”
“Did those men treat you roughly?” inquired the lawyer.