They passed Tatham with downcast eyes
and an air of suppressed excitement which did not escape him. He found
the chief constable pacing up and down, talking in subdued tones, and
with a furrowed brow, to the Superintendent of police.
"Come in, come in," said Marvell heartily, at sight of the young man, who
was the chief landowner of the district, and likely within a couple of
years to be its lord lieutenant. "We want your help. Everything points to
young Brand, and there is much reason to think he is still in the
neighbourhood. What assistance can you give us?"
Tatham promised a band of searchers from the estate. The Duddon estate
itself included a great deal of mountain ground, some of the loneliest
and remotest in the district, where a man who knew the fells might very
well take hiding. Marvell brought out a map, and they pored over it.
The superintendent of police departed.
Then Marvell, with a glance at the door to see that it was safely shut,
said abruptly:
"You know, Faversham has done some unlucky things!"
Tatham eyed him interrogatively.
"It has come out that he was in the Brands' cottage about a week ago,
and that he left money with the family. He says he never saw the younger
son, and did not in fact know him by sight. He offered the elder one
some money in order to help him with his Canadian start. The lad refused,
not being willing, so his mother says--I have seen her myself this
morning--to accept anything from Melrose's agent.
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