WYLDER'S HAJVD.
297
I do suspeck, sir, most serious, as how they have put Mr.
Mark Wylder into a mad-house; and that's how I think
it's gone with him; an' you'll never see him out again if
the Capting has his will."
Do you mean to say you actually think he's shut up
in a mad-house at this moment?" demanded the attorney;
his little pink eyes opened quite round, and his lank cheeks
and tall forehead flushed, at the rush of M ild ideas that
whirred round him, like a covey of birds at the startling
suggestion. "Did either Miss Lake or the Captain use
the word mad-hous;\V.!.
"Well, no." Jfatt
"Or any other worcS^ lunatic asylum, or a —bedlam >
or —or any other word nbifcaing the same thing?"
"Well, I can't say, sir, as I remember; but I rayther
think not. I only know for cert^u, I took it so; and I
do believe as how Mr. Mark Wyluar is confined in a
mad-house, and the Captain knows all about it, and won't
do nothing to get him out."
"H'm — very odd — very strange; but it is only from
the general tenor of what passed, by a sort of guess work,
you have arived at that conclusion?"
Larcom assented.
"Well, Mr. Larcom, I think you have been led into
an erroneous conclusion. Indeed, I may mention I have
reason to think so — in fact, to know that such is the
case. What you mention to me, you know, as a friend
of the family, and holding, as I do, a confidential position
'alike in relation to Mr. Wylder and to the family of
Brandon Hall, is of course sacred; and any thing that
comes from you, Mr. Larcom, is never heard in connec-
tion with your name beyond these walls. And let me
add, it strikes me as highly important, both in the inter-
ests of the leading individuals in this unpleasant business,