"That was very commendable in you. But tell me, is this man's right name Sam Pepper?"
"I hardly think it is, sir. I once saw some letters, and they were addressed to Pepperill Sampson."
"The same! He must be the same!" Mark Horton breathed hard. "Do you know anything about him—where he came from, and so on?"
"Not much. You see, I'm not very old. But he did tell me once that you had been an enemy to my father."
"Me? Who was your father?"
Our hero hung his head and flushed up.
"I don't know, sir."
"This Pepperill Sampson is a villain. Why, he robbed me of my son years ago, to get square with me because I had discharged him for stealing."
"Robbed you of your son?" repeated Nelson. "Do you mean to say he killed your boy?"
"I don't know what he did. At first he was going to let me have my little David back for five thousand dollars, but then he got scared, and disappeared, and that was the last I heard of him or of my child."