WYLDER'S HAJVI).
309
"If it is, you know, sir," said Jos Larkin, "the rever-
sion would be a bad purchase at a halfpenny. I don't
believe it either, sir," resumed the attorney, after a little
interval; '- and I could not advise the party you named,
sir, to sell his remainder for a song."
"You'll advise as you please, sir, and no doubt not
without sufficient reason," retorted Captain Lake.
There was a suspicion of a sneer — not in his counte-
nance, not in his tone, not in his words — but somehow a
suspicion, which stung the attorney like a certainty, and
a pinkish flush tinged his forehead.
"You see, Captain Lake, to speak quite frankly — I
may as well say, in passing, that I have no doubt on my
mind you know a great deal more than you care to tell
about the fate of Mr. Mark Wylder. I look upon it, sir,
that that party has been made away with."
"Old villain!" exclaimed Lake, starting up, with a
sudden access of energy, and his face looked whiter still
than usual — perhaps it was only the light.
"It won't do, sir," said Larkin, with a sinister quiet-
ude. "I say there's been foul play. I think, sir,
you've got him into some foreign mad-house, or place of
confinement, and I won't stop till it's sifted to the bottom.
It is my duty, sir."
Captain Lake's slender hand sprang on the attorney's
collar, coat and waistcoat together, and his knuckles, hard
and sharp, were screwed against Mr. Larkin's jaw-bone,
as he shook him, and his face was like a drift of snow,
with two yellow fires glaring in it.
'You d—d old miscreant! I'll pitch you out of the
window."
"I—I say, let go. You're mad," said the attor-
ney, disengaging himself with a sudden and violent of-
fort, and standing, with the back of a tall chair grasped