For at intervals Mr.Lindsey and I had discussed the probabilities of this affair, and I knew that there was a strong likelihood of its being found out that the mysterious Martin Smeaton was no other than the Michael Carstairs who had left Hathercleugh for good as a young man.

And if it were established that he was married, and that Gavin Smeaton was his lawful son, why, then--but Mr.Ridley was speaking, and I broke off my own speculations to listen to him.
"You've scarcely got me to thank for this, Mr.Smeaton," he said.

"There was naturally a good deal of talk in the neighbourhood after that inquest on Phillips--people began wondering what that man Gilverthwaite wanted to find in the parish registers, of which, I now know, he examined a good many, on both sides the Tweed.

And in the ordinary course of things--and if some one had made a definite search with a definite object--what has been found now could have been found at once.

But I'll tell you how it was.