“You say he married; did he leave any children?”

“No, I believe he had no children; but even if he had, they would have been disinherited also.  Uncle Ralph was severe; he would not even allow Harold’s name to be mentioned; and Hugh also must have turned against his brother, for I have heard that he never spoke of him or allowed any allusion to be made to him.”

“Well,” said Scott, after a pause, “I believe Hugh Mainwaring’s life was far from happy.”

“You are right there.  I’ll never forget the last words he ever spoke to me as I took leave of him that night.  They were to the effect that he hoped when I should have reached his age, I would be able to look back over a happier past than his had been.  It is my opinion, too, that that woman was the cause of his unhappiness, and I believe she is at the bottom of all this trouble.”

Their conversation had drifted to the mystery then surrounding them, and for more than an hour they dwelt on that subject, advancing many surmises, some strangely improbable, but none of which seemed to bring them any nearer a solution of the problem.

“My first visit to this country has proved an eventful one,” said young Mainwaring, as, at a late hour, they finally separated for the night, “and I don’t know yet how it may terminate; but there’s one thing I shall look back upon with pleasure, and that is my meeting with you; and I hope that from this time or we will be friends; and that this friendship, begun to-night, will be renewed in old England many a time.”

“Are you not rather rash,” Scott inquired, slowly, “considering how little we know of each other, the circumstances under which we have met, and the uncertainty of what the future may reveal?”

“No; I’m peculiar.  When I like a fellow, I like him; and I’ve been studying you pretty closely.  I don’t think we need either of us be troubled about the future; but I’m your friend, Scott, and, whatever happens, I’ll stand by you.”

“So be it, then, Hugh,” replied the secretary, clasping the hand of the young Englishman and, for the first time, calling him by name.  “I thank you, and I hope you will never go back on that.”

CHAPTER XI

SKIRMISHING

On the following morning the gentlemen at Fair Oaks were astir at an unusually early hour, and immediately after breakfast held a brief conference.  It was decided to offer a heavy reward for the apprehension of the murderer of Hugh Mainwaring, while a lesser reward was to be offered for information leading to identification and arrest of the guilty party.  Preparations were also to be made for the funeral, which would take place the next day, and which, in accordance with the wishes of Ralph Mainwaring, was to be strictly private.

Their conference at an end, Ralph Mainwaring ordered the carriage to take himself, Mr. Whitney, and the secretary to the depot.