"Such a coward wouldn't be above circulating falsehoods."
"I wish I knew just where to find him. I would have it out with him in short order," concluded Jack.
The youth was in no humor for further fishing and soon wound up his line and started for home.
As he passed along over the plantation road his thoughts were busy. Could there be any truth in what St. John Ruthven had said? Was he really a nobody, with no claim upon the lady he called mother and the girl he looked upon as his sister? A chill passed down his backbone, and, as he came in sight of the stately old mansion that he called home, he paused to wipe the cold perspiration from his forehead.
"I will go to mother and ask her the truth," he told himself. "I can't wait to find out in any other way." Yet the thought of facing that kind-hearted lady was not a pleasant one. How should he begin to tell her of what was in his mind?
"Is my mother in?" he asked of the maid whom he met in the hallway.
"No, Massah Jack, she dun went to town," was the answer of the colored girl.
"Did she say when she would be back?"
"No, sah."
"Do you know if my sister is around?"