"He's going home," thought Nelson. "I ought to get down there before him. What will he say if he finds me missing?"
He was now more perplexed than ever. What had Sam Pepper been doing in the house in which Homer Bulson lived? Had the man robbed that place, and had he himself made a mistake in regard to the Horton mansion?
"It's too deep for me," he mused. "I'll never get to the bottom of it. But that young lady—hullo, here she comes, sure enough!"
He stepped behind the stoop again and waited. In a moment Gertrude passed him. Evidently the darkness and the strange silence frightened her. When Nelson came out of his hiding place she started back.
"Oh!" she gasped. "Is it you?"
"Yes, miss. I—I was wondering if you would really leave," he answered.
"There was nothing else for me to do."
"He is your uncle?"
"Yes. He is Mark Horton and I am Gertrude Horton, his dead brother's only child."