WYLDER'S HAJVD.
307
"And I think. Captain Lake, it behoves us to leave
no stone unturned to sift this matter to the bottom."
"With what particular purpose, I don't quite see,"
said Lake. "Don't you think possibly Mark Wylder
might think us very impertinent?"
"I think, Captain Lake, on the contrary, we might
be doing that gentleman the only service he is capable of
receiving, and I know we should be doing something to-
ward tracing and exposing the machinations of a conspir-
acy."
"A conspiracy! I did not quite see your meaning.
Then, you really think there is a conspiracy — formed by
him or against him, which?"
"Against him, Captain Lake. Did the same idea
never strike you?"
"Not, I think, that I can recollect."
"In none of your conversations upon the subject with
— with members of your family?" continued the attor-
ney, with a grave significance.
"I say, sir, I don't recollect," said Lake, glaring for
an instant in his face very savagely. And pray, sir. have
you no evidence in the letters you speak of but the in-
sertiop of dates, and the posting them in inverse. order,
to lead you to that strong conclusion?"
"None, as supplied by the letters themselves," an-
swered Larkin, a little doggedly, "and I venture to think
that is rather strong."
"Quite so, to a mind like yours," said Lake, with a
faint gleam of his unpleasant smile thrown upon the floor,
"but other men don't see it; and I hope, at all events,
there's a likelihood that Mark Wylder will soon return
and look after his own business — I'm quite tired of it,
and of" (he was going to say you)— " of everything
connected with it."