“I have not heard from him lately.”
“Ha! There is something she wishes to conceal,” thought John Simpson.
“I am afraid he won’t get back the money his traveling expenses must cost him.”
“He was obliged to do something, Mr. Simpson. There was no chance left for him in Wilton.”
“When you write to him, tell him that I will give him back his old place if he sees fit to come back.”
“I will tell him,” said Mrs. Thatcher, but she expressed no gratitude, for she felt none.
Why did John Simpson make this offer? Because he wanted to keep Tom away from California. After so many years, there seemed little enough chance of the boy’s learning anything of the circumstances attending his father’s fate, but a guilty conscience makes men cowards, and John Simpson was troubled with an uneasy idea that some time, in some way to him unknown his crime might be made known.
There was another circumstance that puzzled him. How did Tom Thatcher obtain the necessary funds for so expensive a journey? Probably, he said to himself, Mrs. Thatcher had mortgaged her house, and given Tom the money. He determined to find out if he could.
“You must excuse what I am about to say, Mrs. Thatcher,” he began, clearing his throat to begin with, “but I am afraid you did a foolish thing in raising money on your place to pay the expenses of such a wild-goose chase.”
“Who told you I had mortgaged my place, Mr. Simpson?” demanded the widow, looking the rich man full in the face.