He was to travel under another
name, for fear that his own would get about, and cause the fugitive
to make another hurried disappearance.
He took a subpoena to serve on the old man as a last resource.
Charlie was emphatic. "Go up and get hold of the old vagrant, and
find out all about it. Don't make a mess of it, whatever you do.
Remember the old lady, and Miss Grant, and the youngsters, and
all of us depend on you in this business. Don't come back beaten.
Don't let anything stop you. Get him drunk or get him sober--friendly
or fighting--but get the truth, and get the proofs of it. Choke it
out of the old hound somehow."
Hugh said that he would, and departed, weighed down by responsibility,
to execute his difficult mission. He had to go into an untravelled
country to get the truth out of a man who did not want to tell it;
and the time allowed was short, as the case could not be postponed
much longer.
He travelled by sea to Port Faraway, a tropical sweltering township
by the Northern seas of Australia, and when he reached it felt like
one of the heroes in Tennyson's Lotus Eaters--he had come "into a
land wherein it seemed always afternoon."
Reeves, the buffalo shooter, was a well-known man, but to find his
camp was another matter. No one seemed to have energy enough to
take much interest in the quest.
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