"I think the grandson may have been spirited off somewhere. Nothing
more easy, you know. Murder is a risky operation, and John Wade is
respectable, and wouldn't want to run the risk of a halter."

"You may be right. You don't connect this story of yours with the boy
you've brought here, do you?"

"I do," answered Graves, emphatically. "I shouldn't be surprised if this
was the very boy!"

"What makes you think so?"

"First, because there's some resemblance between the boy and the old
man's son, as I remember him. Next, it would explain John Wade's anxiety
to get rid of him. It's my belief that John Wade has recognized in this
boy the baby he got rid of fourteen years ago, and is afraid his uncle
will make the same discovery."

Frank left the crevice through which he had received so much information
in a whirl of new and bewildering thoughts.

"Was it possible," he asked himself, "that he could be the grandson of
Mr. Wharton, his kind benefactor?"



CHAPTER XX

THE ESCAPE