It was nearly four o’clock when the spell was broken.  A large packet, bearing the printed address of a London and American bank, was brought to him by a special messenger; but the written direction was in the captain’s hand.  Randolph tore it open.  It contained one or two inclosures, which he hastily put aside for the letter, two pages of foolscap, which he read breathlessly:—­

Dear Trent,—­Don’t worry your head if I have slipped my cable without telling you.  I’m all right, only I got the news you are bringing me, just after you left, by Jack Redhill, whom I had sent to Dornton Hall to see how the land lay the night before.  It was not that I didn’t trust you, but he had ways of getting news that you wouldn’t stoop to.  You can guess, from what I have told you already, that, now Bobby is gone, there’s nothing to keep me here, and I’m following my own idea of letting the whole blasted thing slide.  I only worked this racket for the sake of him.  I’m sorry for him, but I suppose the poor little beggar couldn’t stand these sunless, God-forsaken longitudes any more than I could.  Besides that, as I didn’t want to trust any lawyer with my secret, I myself had hunted up some books on the matter, and found that, by the law of entail, I’d have to rip up the whole blessed thing, and Bill would have had to pay back every blessed cent of what rents he had collected since he took hold—­not to me, but the estate—­with interest, and that no arrangement I could make with him would be legal on account of the boy.  At least, that’s the way the thing seemed to pan out to me.  So that when I heard of Bobby’s death I was glad to jump the rest, and that’s what I made up my mind to do.

But, like a blasted lubber, now that I could do it and cut right away, I must needs think that I’d like first to see Bill on the sly, without letting on to any one else, and tell him what I was going to do.  I’d no fear that he’d object, or that he’d hesitate a minute to fall in with my plan of dropping my name and my game, and giving him full swing, while I stood out to sea and the South Pacific, and dropped out of his mess for the rest of my life.  Perhaps I wanted to set his mind at rest, if he’d ever had any doubts; perhaps I wanted to have a little fun out of him for his d——­d previousness; perhaps, lad, I had a hankering to see the old place for the last time.  At any rate, I allowed to go to Dornton Hall.  I timed myself to get there about the hour you left, to keep out of sight until I knew he was returning from the horse show, and to waylay him alone and have our little talk without witnesses.  I daren’t go to the Hall, for some of the old servants might recognize me.