"Indeed I do, sirwith all my heart!"
"Thank you, Adam, for that." The old, mans eyes filled and his voice trembled. Then, after a long silence between them, he went on: "When I heard you were coming I made my will. It was well that your interests should be protected from that moment on. Here is the deedkeep it, Adam. All I have shall belong to you; and if love and good wishes, or the memory of them, can make life sweeter, yours shall be a happy one. Now, my dear boy, let us turn in. We start early in the morning and have a long drive before us. I hope you dont mind driving? I was going to have the old travelling carriage in which my grandfather, your greatgranduncle, went to Court when William IV. was king. It is all rightthey built well in those daysand it has been kept in perfect order. But I think I have done better: I have sent the carriage in which I travel myself. The horses are of my own breeding, and relays of them shall take us all the way. I hope you like horses? They have long been one of my greatest interests in life."
"I love them, sir, and I am happy to say I have many of my own. My father gave me a horse farm for myself when I was eighteen. I devoted myself to it, and it has gone on. Before I came away, my steward gave me a memorandum that we have in my own place more than a thousand, nearly all good."
"I am glad, my boy. Another link between us."
"Just fancy what a delight it will be, sir, to see so much of Englandand with you!"
"Thank you again, my boy. I will tell you all about your future home and its surroundings as we go. We shall travel in oldfashioned state, I tell you. My grandfather always drove fourinhand; and so shall we."
"Oh, thanks, sir, thanks. May I take the ribbons sometimes?"
"Whenever you choose, Adam. The team is your own. Every horse we use today is to be your own."
"You are too generous, uncle!"
"Not at all. Only an old mans selfish pleasure. It is not every day that an heir to the old home comes back. Andoh, by the wayNo, we had better turn in nowI shall tell you the rest in the morning."
CHAPTER II
THE CASWALLS OF CASTRA REGIS
Mr. Salton had all his life been an early riser, and necessarily an early waker. But early as he woke on the next morningand although there was an excuse for not prolonging sleep in the constant whirr and rattle of the "donkey" engine winches of the great shiphe met the eyes of Adam fixed on him from his berth. His grandnephew had given him the sofa, occupying the lower berth himself. The old man, despite his great strength and normal activity, was somewhat tired by his long journey of the day before, and the prolonged and exciting interview which followed it. So he was glad to lie still and rest his body, whilst his mind was actively exercised in taking in all he could of his strange surroundings. Adam, too, after the pastoral habit to which he had been bred, woke with the dawn, and was ready to enter on the experiences of the new day whenever it might suit his elder companion. It was little wonder, then, that, so soon as each realised the others readiness, they simultaneously jumped up and began to dress. The steward had by previous instructions early breakfast prepared, and it was not long before they went down the gangway on shore in search of the carriage.
They found Mr. Saltons bailiff looking out for them on the dock, and he brought them at once to where the carriage was waiting in the street. Richard Salton pointed out with pride to his young companion the suitability of the vehicle for every need of travel. To it were harnessed four useful horses, with a postillion to each pair.
"See," said the old man proudly, "how it has all the luxuries of useful travelsilence and isolation as well as speed. There is nothing to obstruct the view of those travelling and no one to overhear what they may say. I have used that trap for a quarter of a century, and I never saw one more suitable for travel. You shall test it shortly. We are going to drive through the heart of England; and as we go Ill tell you what I was speaking of last night. Our route is to be by Salisbury, Bath, Bristol, Cheltenham, Worcester, Stafford; and so home."
Adam remained silent a few minutes, during which he seemed all eyes, for he perpetually ranged the whole circle of the horizon.
"Has our journey today, sir," he asked, "any special relation to what you said last night that you wanted to tell me?"
"Not directly; but indirectly, everything."
"Wont you tell me nowI see we cannot be overheardand if anything strikes you as we go along, just run it in. I shall understand."
So old Salton spoke:
"To begin at the beginning, Adam. That lecture of yours on The Romans in Britain, a report of which you posted to me, set me thinkingin addition to telling me your tastes. I wrote to you at once and asked you to come home, for it struck me that if you were fond of historical researchas seemed a factthis was exactly the place for you, in addition to its being the home of your own forbears. If you could learn so much of the British Romans so far away in New South Wales, where there cannot be even a tradition of them, what might you not make of the same amount of study on the very spot. Where we are going is in the real heart of the old kingdom of Mercia, where there are traces of all the various nationalities which made up the conglomerate which became Britain."