The ladies then took a stroll in the park, taking much comfort in each other’s society. But they were again considerably upset by noticing on their return, that the squire was rather agitated. Directly he saw his daughter, he asked her, excitedly, if Lucy could take a letter of importance to Newhaven as Bennet could not be spared? He added that Doctor Peters was ill and wished to see him in order to make a communication that permitted no delay.
“Very well, papa, if you really must send Lucy; and pray see the poor old doctor at once. I wonder what he has to say?”
We must now turn to Hawksworth and his actions. He had heard just enough, both at Haywards Heath and elsewhere, about the fugitive financier and his supposed whereabouts to induce him to have another attempt to capture Falcon, as the detective had been told that he was evading the police, and that Warner had been on a wild-goose chase after him, and had failed. So Hawksworth set out for the south coast with the idea of redeeming his waning reputation, and he resolved that he would leave no stone unturned to effect his capture, especially as he held warrants for the arrest of the financier and for Croft, respecting some Australian doings and other charges relating to crimes on the high seas.
Hawksworth left London with his usual jaunty air of confidence, which was one of his weak points, and another was his susceptibility to the charms of the fair sex. It was in endeavouring to make himself agreeable to Miss Chain, and to ingratiate himself with that young lady, that he made that fatal mistake at the Crystal Palace, in fancying that Captain Link was Filcher Falcon, merely because he personally resembled him to some extent. However, had he known the particulars of Warner’s pursuit of the fugitives, he would probably have felt less confident in his mission, which subsequent events—but we must not anticipate.
CHAPTER XXII
TIGHTENING THE NET
On the squire’s making up his mind to visit Doctor Peters, he elected to do so privately from the park by way of the lane. On his arrival, he found his medical adviser reclining on an old-fashioned couch and looking a most dejected object.
“I am truly sorry to see you down again with gout,” said the squire. “Don’t move, Peters; you must shake off this attack as soon as you can, for I am not feeling at all well myself,” said he, selfishly. “This robbery has greatly upset me. Of course you heard of it?”
“I did, squire, and wish to speak to you of a loss I have myself had.”
“I hope that you have not also fallen a victim to those rascals, doctor?”
“I have, though, and it occurred on the same night that we were all in the park, soon after Falcon and Croft entered your library, when, so far as I can make out by Maria’s evidence, the scoundrels finished up here. At last, squire, I have been convinced that my girl’s statement was only too true.”