462
WYLDER'S HJUVD.
The odious spectacle occupied him for some minutes.
He did not speak while they remained in the room. On
coming out there was a black cloud upon the attorney's
features, and he said, sulkily, to Edwards, who had turned
the key in the lock, and now touched his hat as he listen-
ed,
"Yes, there is a resemblance, but it is all a mistake. I
travelled as far as Shillingsworth last night with Mr. Mark
Wylder: he was perfectly well. This can't be he."
But there was a terrible impression on Mr. Jos Lark-
in's mind that this certainly was he, and with a sulky
nod to the policeman, he walked darkly down to the Vi-
car's house. The Vicar had been sent for to Naunton to
pray with a dying person; and Mr. Larkin, disappointed,
left a note to state that in writing that morning, as he
had done, in reference to the purchase of the reversion,
through Messrs. Burlington and Smith, he had simply
expressed his own surmises as to the probable withdrawal
of the intending purchaser, but had received no formal,
nor, indeed, any authentic information, from either the
party or the solicitors referred to, to that effect. That he
mentioned this lest misapprehension should arise, but
not as attaching any importance to the supposed discovery
which seemed to imply Mr. Mark Wylder's death. That
gentleman, on the contrary, he had seen alive and well at
Shillingsworth on the night previous; and he had been
seen in conference with Captain Lake at a subsequent
hour, at Brandon.
From all this the reader may suppose that Mr. Jos
Larkin was not quite in a comfortable state, and he re-
solved to get the deeds, and go down again to the Vicar's,
and persuade him to execute them. He could make Wil-
liam Wylder, of course, do whatever he pleased.
There were a good many drunken fellows about the
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