Ronald then told the captain all he knew of his father’s early history, and of the discovery of the two men who had carried him off.
“I understand the whole affair,” exclaimed Lord Claymore, warmly. “With all my heart I’ll help you to clear it up. You will have plenty of employment for your prize-money: the lawyers will take good care of that; but never mind, we’ll have enough for their maws, and to spare. Sharks must be fed as well as other fish, you know. As to that Sir Marcus Wardhill, I like him not. I should have little compunction about sending him on his travels; but I was interested in his daughter, a stately lady, still bearing the marks of great beauty; the Lady Hilda, they call her.”
“Yes, I used, as a boy, to think her very lovely,” said Ronald, warmly.
“I may say she is so still,” returned his captain. “But do you know, Morton, there is something very strange about her; she talked to me in the oddest way; inquired if I understood astrology, and would favour her by working out her horoscope, and would inform her when the lost one would return.”
“She has been sorely tried,” observed Ronald. “Her father and Lawrence Brindister are but sorry companions for one so gifted; and the death of her husband and loss of her child were blows she has never recovered.”
Lord Claymore had not heard the circumstances of the case, and so Ronald gave him the whole story as he had heard it. His captain was much interested.
“What a delightful thread to unravel!” he exclaimed. “I should like to aid in it; but unless you have a clue, it is not likely that her son will be discovered.”
“She lives on in hopes that he may,” answered Ronald. “I pray that she may not be disappointed. I owe her a debt of gratitude I can never repay for all the instruction she gave me.”
“Perhaps you may be able to serve her,” remarked Lord Claymore. “Though it strikes me, from what I can make out, that she was but repaying the debt she owes you.”
Ronald did not inquire what his captain meant, for they were both summoned on deck with the pleasant information that a sail was in sight. The frigate was at this time off the Azores.