120 By Stream and Sea. 



Miss Western, and in his rambles with either Sullivan or the 

 warder Hinton, who it has been previously suggested, was 

 acquainted with the family affairs of the convict number 

 Ninety-six. 



Some six weeks after the memorable snow-storm, Sir 

 Berton Herbert, Bart., received a letter marked "private," 

 and fastened with evident care by an ample supply of 

 sealing-wax. It bore the post mark of the town nearest to 

 Kingsford, the central receptacle for all the correspondence 

 swept up by the Quickmoor rural postmen. This is a copy 

 of the letter: — 



" My Dear Father, 



"I am sick and weary of the life of deception which 

 this wretched business entails, and not the least repulsive 

 portion of it is the necessity which the devil lays upon us of 

 making other people deceivers too. 



" Nothing whatever can be heard of our friend. 



"It seems certain that he is not in this part of the country; 

 equally unlikely is it that he could have escaped to the coast. 

 The paragraph which appeared in yesterday's papers assuring 

 the public that the convict Tolly has been seen in the United 

 States, &c, is, of course, another mesh in the web of 

 deception. But, I repeat, of him there is nothing to tell ; 

 the very prison officials are puzzled, and can express no 

 opinion. So far my expedition has failed. 



" But I have something that will pain you to know. Poor 

 Alice, as I am convinced, lived at this inn — your daughter 

 and my sister, Heaven forgive us! — as a barmaid for two 

 years ! and she disappeared mysteriously on the night of 

 Tolly's escape. Deception again, you see. After that terrible 

 trial and sentence, we, you may remember, received a letter 



