'But, you see,' he said, 'he did not make a will. Is that right?'
'Yes,' I answered. 'Mr. Turton found out the address of his solicitor, and told me there was no will.'
'So that, except your aunt in India,' he continued, 'there appears to be no one upon whom you have the least claim. Yet, Mr. Turton——'
'I don't want to go back to Mr. Turton,' I cried, taking a step towards him.
He took his cigar from his lips, and stood gazing for a few seconds at the ash, which he then knocked off into the fender.
'That is all very well,' he said. 'I suppose no boy who ran away from school ever felt any strong desire to return. But I understand that you admit that Mr. Turton tried to find you—that, in fact, he would have found you if Jacintha had acted as she ought to have done.'
'I don't want to get Jacintha into a row,' I exclaimed, and the slightest of smiles lighted his face.
'I am certain you don't,' he answered, 'and you need not trouble yourself on that score. But as Mr. Turton tried to find you, it is pretty clear that he wished to take you back with him. Now, if he wished to take you back, he could not have had any strong objection to keeping you. You don't complain that he treated you brutally?'
'No,' I said, 'I never saw him give any fellow a licking; but, still——'
'Anyhow,' Mr. Westlake continued, 'I have decided to write to Major Ruston, and tell him all the circumstances, offering to do anything on your behalf which he wishes; then I shall take a train to Castlemore the first thing to-morrow morning and have a chat with Mr. Turton.'