human
Heavens! man, what do you make of it?
gpt
Make of it! exclaimed Dan,
human
I don't know what to make of it. It's incomprehensible. What the devil is that old rascal after, and how has he bewitched Nance?
gpt
Perhaps, suggested Tom, more for Nancy's sake than because he believed what he was saying,
human
Nonsense! that couldn't possibly account for such secrecy and caution. No, Tom, he has some deviltry on foot, and we must find out what it is.
gpt
That should be simple enough. Ask Nance.
human
Ah! exclaimed his friend,
gpt
Then go to the old man himself and demand an explanation.
human
He'd lie ...
gpt
Turn him out.
human
I could do that, of course. But I think I would rather find out what he is up to. It has something to do with the old cabinet in the Oak Parlour. I'll find out the mystery of that if I have to hack the thing into a thousand pieces. What I hate, is Nance's being mixed up in it.
gpt
We can watch again.
human
Yes; we'll do that. In the meanwhile, I am going to investigate that old ark myself. There's something about, something concealed in it, that he wants to get. When I took him in there the day after he came, he couldn't keep his eyes off it. If you can get Nance out of the way tomorrow afternoon, I'll send the Marquis off with Jesse for that long-talked-of visit to Mondy Port; and I'll give Jesse instructions not to get him back before dark. And while they are away, I'll investigate the Oak Parlour myself. Can you get Nance off?
gpt
I might ask her to go and look over the Red Farm with me. She might like the walk through the woods. I could easily manage to be away for three or four hours.
human
Good! You may think it odd, Tom, that I should seem to distrust Nance. I don't distrust her, but there has always been a mystery about her. Mother knows a good deal more than she has even been willing to tell to me, or even to Nance, I guess. I know nothing except that she is of French extraction, and I have sometimes wondered since she has been so often with the old Marquis this winter, if he didn't know something about her. It flashed over me to-night as I saw them in that deserted room. Whatever is a-foot, I am going to get at the bottom of it. We will watch again to-morrow night. I heard him whisper as he left Nance, 'More success next time!' This sort of thing may have been going on for a month.
gpt
We may have use for that yet, Tommy, he said.
human
It would do me good, after what I have seen to-night, to put a bit of lead into the Marquis de Boisdhyver as a memento of his so delightful sojourn at _L'Auberge au Chene Rouge_.