This had been the meaning of Augustus Scarborough when he informed his aunt that Harry had been the last who had seen Mountjoy before his disappearance.

To Mrs.Mountjoy the fact had been most injurious to Harry's character.

Harry had wilfully kept the secret while all the world was at work looking for Mountjoy Scarborough; and, as far as Mrs.Mountjoy could understand, it might well be that Harry had struck the fatal blow that had sent her nephew to his long account.

All the impossibilities in the case had not dawned upon her.

It had not occurred to her that Mountjoy could not have been killed and his body made away with without some great effort, in the performance of which the "scamp" would hardly have risked his life or his character.