I stared at him and muttered, “What should my mother mean, Mr. Bradbury, by the words ‘that doomed house’ and ‘the wealth ill-gotten’?” He said swiftly, “Doomed, if the inheritance p. 51go to Charles Craike! Surely doomed! Ill-gotten! Gotten as honestly as most!” p. 51 “Mr. Bradbury, forgive me,—are you frank with me?” He took snuff ere he replied. “Mr. John Craike, at your grandfather’s house you’ll learn the answers to your questions. Will you forgive me if now I do not answer you?” “Well, then, concerning this house—its whereabouts? I know nothing.” He laughed a little. “Craike House,” he said, “passes among the folk of the neighbourhood—it is far from here—by an odd name. ‘Rogues’ Haven,’ sir. ‘Rogues’ Haven.’” “From the reputation of my kinsfolk?” “Surely not,” he answered, “but from the retired nature of your grandfather’s life, and from the practice of the vulgar to ascribe mystery and evil where their curiosity is not satisfied. And from the charity of your grandfather in keeping about him his old servants and dependants. An odd company, maybe, Mr. John—a very odd company. But judge of the house and its inmates yourself, sir. I warn you only—I am bound to warn you—against Mr. Charles Craike.” p. 53Chapter VI. Through the Darkness p. 53 Three weeks thence I accompanied Mr. Bradbury on the journey down from London to my grandfather’s house. Mr. Bradbury had sent off a letter to Mr. Craike announcing that he purposed to visit him, and to present his grandson to him. He had received only a few lines of a letter in reply, penned, he believed, not by the old man but by his son Charles,—to the effect that Mr. Bradbury’s information astounded Mr. Edward Craike, but that he consented to receive Mr. Bradbury and the young gentleman when it should be convenient for them to journey down to Craike. Mr. Bradbury seemed ill-pleased with the nature of the letter; he took pains to impress on me the desirability of my commending myself to my grandfather’s favour and affection. From Mr. Bradbury’s first admission to me, on our journey up to London, that he had no liking for Charles Craike, and that his purpose was to prevent his inheriting his father’s fortune, he had stressed repeatedly my uncle’s certain chagrin at p. 54my
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