But with whom? Did she tell you that?"
"She did," returned Andrew Larkspur. "She told me that the scoundrel
who holds little missy in his keeping is no other than the man
suspected of a foul murder--a man I have long been looking for--a man
who is well known amongst the criminal classes of London by the name of
Black Milsom."
Black Milsom! the face of Lady Eversleigh, pale before, grew almost
ghastly in its pallor, as that hated name sounded in her ears, ominous
as a death-knell.
"Black Milsom!" she exclaimed at last. "If my child is in the power of
that man, she is, indeed, lost."
"You know him, my lady?" cried Andrew Larkspur, with surprise. "Ah, I
remember, you seemed familiar with the details of the Jernam murder.
You know this man, Milsom?"
"I do know him," answered Honoria, in a tone of utter despair. "Do not
ask me where or when that man and I have met. It is enough that I know
him. My darling could not be in worse hands."
"He can have but one motive, and that to extort money," said Captain
Copplestone. "No harm will come to our darling's precious life. You
have reason to rejoice that your child has not fallen into the hands of
Sir Reginald Eversleigh."
"Tell me more," said Honoria to Mr. Larkspur. "Tell me all you have
discovered."
"All I could discover was that the man Milsom had taken the child to
London by a certain coach.
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