Croft saw now, quite plainly, what he must do.  He must go to Howlett’s as quickly as possible.  Perhaps Keswick and the cashier had not yet met, and, in that case, all he would have to do would be to remunerate the young woman and her husband—­for she had informed him that she intended to combine this business with a wedding tour—­and send them off immediately.  He could then have his conference with Keswick there as well as at the Springs.  If any mischief had already been done, he did not know what course he might have to pursue, but it was highly necessary for him to be on the spot as soon as possible.  He greatly disliked to leave the neighborhood of Roberta March, but his absence would only be temporary.

After an early dinner, he mounted the horse which he had hired from his host of the Springs, and, with a valise strapped behind him, set out for Howlett’s.  He had made careful inquiries in regard to the road, and after a ride somewhat tiresome to a man not used to such protracted horseback exercise, arrived at his destination about sundown.  When he reached the scattered houses which formed, as he supposed, the outskirts of the village, for such he had been told it was, he rode on, but soon found that he had left Howlett’s behind him, and that those supposed outskirts were the place itself.  Hewlett’s was nothing, in fact, but a collection of eight or ten houses quite widely separated from each other, and the only one of them which exhibited any public character whatever, was the store, a large frame building standing a little back from the road.  Turning his horse, Lawrence rode up to the store and inquired if there was any house in the neighborhood where he could get lodging for the night.

The storekeeper, who came out to him, was a very little man whose appearance recalled to Croft the fact that he had noticed, in this part of the State, a great many men who were extremely tall, and a great many who were extremely small, which peculiarity, he thought, might assist a physiologist in discovering the different effects of hot bread upon different organizations.  He was quite as cordial, however, as the biggest, burliest, and jolliest host who ever welcomed a guest to his inn, as he informed Mr Croft that there was no house in the village which made a business of entertaining strangers, but if he chose to stop with him he would keep him and his horse for the night, and do what he could to make him comfortable.

Lawrence ate supper that night with the storekeeper, his wife, and five of his children; but as he was very hungry, and the meal was a plentiful one, he enjoyed the experience.

“I suppose you’re goin’ on to Westerville in the mornin’?” said the little host.

“No,” replied Croft, “I am not going any farther than this place.  Do you know if a gentleman named Keswick arrived here recently?”

“Why, yaas,” said the man, “if you mean Junius Keswick.”

“Certainly he did,” said Mrs Storekeeper.  “He rode through here yesterday, and he stopped at the store to see if we had any of that Lynchburg tobacco he used to smoke when he lived here.  He’s gone on to his aunt’s.”