"Well, as it turns out, we might have spared half
our pains and anxiety, for Gorton was never any one but himself: an
innocent sheriff's officer, as far as you are concerned, who had never,
in his life set eyes on Val Elster until he went after him to Calne."
"Didn't I say so?" reiterated Val. "Gordon would have known me too well
to arrest Edward for me."
"But you admitted the general likeness between you and your brother; and
Gordon had not seen you for three years or more."
"Yes; I admitted all you say, and perhaps was a little doubtful myself.
But I soon shook off the doubt, and of late years have been sure that
Gordon was really dead. It has been more than a conviction. I always said
there were no grounds for connecting the two together."
"I had my grounds for doing it," remarked the barrister. "Gorton, it
seems, has been in Australia ever since. No wonder Green could not
unearth him in London. He's back again on a visit, looking like a
gentleman; and really I can't discover that there was ever anything
against him, except that he was down in the world. Taylor met him the
other day, and I had him brought to my chambers; and have told you the
result."
"You do not now feel any doubt that Gordon's dead?"
"None at all. Your friend, Gordon of Kircudbright, was the one who
embarked, or ought to have embarked, on the _Morning Star_, homeward
bound," said Mr.
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