look at you in a clear light, I would have sworn that you were his son.”

“Indeed!” laughed the young stranger, in an uneasy manner. “You have detected a likeness; most people say the same; but I am not his son, and, what is more, no relation either. You have[Pg 4] heard of young Bolton, Mr. Redgill’s travelling and collecting clerk? Well, I am he.”

[Pg 4]

“And is Redgill in such a hurry for his money that he has sent you to collect it? Why, he expressly told me to use my own time, and call myself with it whenever I liked. I’m sure I have always been punctual with him.”

“I do not come for the money by any means,” said Bolton; “Mr. Redgill would not so insult you as to distrust your well-known honesty.”

“Because, if even you did call for the money, I should not have given it to you,” said the old man, smiling, “£2,000 can’t be trusted in everybody’s hands, you know, and although you may be as you say, Mr. Bolton, Redgill’s travelling and collecting clerk, I am not to know that; I have never seen you before, as I know of.”

“True,” said the stranger, smiling blandly; “I commend your prudence, Farmer Bertram; but the truth is, I was travelling to Portsmouth on business for Mr. Redgill, and stopped to bait my horse at the ‘Black Bull,’ and found some of your labourers enjoying themselves.”

“Yes, I gave them a treat to-night as it’s my birthday. I would have gone among them myself, only I felt very much upset by the wild behaviour of my only son Robert.”

“Exactly, and it’s about him that I have come so far out of my way, in order to inform you of him, and to warn you.”

“Warn me!” said the farmer, suddenly changing colour, and with looks of distrust at the stranger’s uneasiness of voice and manner.

“You have had a quarrel with him to-day, and slammed the door in his face.”

“I did. Who told you?” the old man asked. “No one but him and I were present.”

“I overheard him say as much to another in a whispered conversation.”

“Indeed!”

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