If I am the one who is left behind, will you promise me something ?" "You know I will." "That boy of mine, Atherton, is somewhere, I'm as sure of it as that I'm sitting here.

He's vanished.

My letters to Grangerham cannot all have miscarried, and they certainly have none of them been answered.

My mother-in-law, as I told you, died in the south of England.

The boy may have been with her, or left behind in Grangerham, or he may be anywhere.
I told you of the letter I had from the school ?" "Yes; he had had an accident and gone home damaged--crippled, in fact." "Yes," said Captain Forrester, with a groan, "crippled--and perhaps left without a friend." "You want me to promise to find him if you are not there to do it, and be a father to him.