On the Scent.
Meantime Jane had sought her own room, whither Atkins now followed her.
She advanced to meet him, and hastily, as if she would cut short any
other topic which might be supposed to more nearly concern her, she
asked; "Do you bring me tidings of your journey? I can imagine its
success! It is sheer foolishness, like all else that has thus far been
done!"
"It is not so this time!"
Jane gazed at him as if she did not trust her ears.
"What do you say?"
"We have a trace."
Jane trembled. "Of my brother?"
"Be calm, be calm, Miss Jane," said Atkins, coolly, as he laid a hand
upon her arm. "The matter is in no way decided! A trace which appeared
only to vanish immediately, and which leaves us only a weak prop for
future investigation; that is at present the only result I can impart
to you."
Miss Forest had already regained her self-possession. "Very well! It is
the first sign of life and being. What have you discovered? How did you
discover it?"
Atkins quietly drew her to the sofa, and sat down by her side.
"Moderate your impatience, Miss Jane. I will be brief and clear as
possible; you may learn later the results. You know that as we passed
through Hamburg I took all necessary steps, I notified the police, I
advertised in the public journals; but as usual in such cases, no
answer came. Four weeks after, at your request, I returned to Hamburg
to convince myself personally, of the hopelessness of our efforts. The
first days of my stay, this seemed to be the only result of my journey;
but on the third, a sailor came to see me."
"A sailor?" repeated Jane in astonishment.
"Yes, he had just landed, and had accidentally seen my advertisement.
He came to tell me that twenty years before, some neighbors of his
parents, poor fishermen who lived in a little village on the coast of
the North Sea, coming from Hamburg, where they had been to market, had
brought with them a boy they had found there, had kept him and reared
him with their own son. The man's statement was so positive that it
induced me to pay him the reward offered, and to write at once to the
designated place."
Jane had listened with passionate intentness.
"And you have received an answer?"
"Yes, an answer with the minutest details. You will yourself read the
letter, it has convinced me that this boy was really our young master
Forest. The date, the age, the incidental descriptions, all agree with
my advertisement. The failure of our investigations hitherto is easily
explained. With the usual indiscretion of such people, instead of
notifying the authorities of their discovery of the lost child, these
fishermen calmly waited for some person to claim him sooner or later,
and meantime, adopted him as their own. To that wretched, sandy
fishing-hamlet, shut out from all the world, a newspaper scarce ever
penetrates, this accounts for the failure of Doctor Stephen's efforts
to find the child."
"Well, what about these people?" interrupted Jane, with eager
impatience.
"They are dead! They died a few years after, and as their poor
neighbors could and would not be burdened with the care and support of
the two boys, the fisherman's son was sent to a relative, an artisan in
a small North-German town, and young master Forest was received into
the house of a clergyman in one of the adjoining villages; but years
ago he gave up his parish and left that region. Here ends the letter,
and my investigations for the present."
With a deep sigh, Jane arose. Discouraging as were these last words, it
required only the slightest hint of her brother's possible existence,
to arouse all her energies to action. In one minute she had reviewed
all, had mastered the whole situation with her wonted clear-sightedness
and promptness.
"We must above all things ascertain the abode of this clergyman, and in
order to do this we must make inquiries in his former parish. If he is
not to be found, then we must extend our inquiries to the mechanic who
adopted the other boy; perhaps he still keeps up some sort of
correspondence with his youthful associate. In any event, we must
quickly and decidedly follow the clue we had scarce hoped to find."
"That is my opinion. I only wished to advise with you in regard to the
necessary proceedings. But one thing more! I have at your express wish,
thus far, kept all this from Mr. Alison; he has no suspicion of the
possible existence of a brother-in-law. Is it not time now to confide
it to him?"
"No!" said Jane, almost roughly. "Not until we are sure. We could
expect from him neither assistance nor gratification in efforts which
would possibly deprive him of half the fortune upon which he reckons."