As they talked, the attention of both turned to the younger Quentin
Locke, who seemed overjoyed at the recovery of his former employer.
Brent had a very great feeling of affection and respect for the younger
man, for had he not really brought him up?
As all questioned one another, they asked Brent much about the past, and
he told them all.
He told how he had become finally suspicious of Balcom, of how he
insisted upon instituting a search for the doctor, his wife, and
children. He told how Balcom had opposed him up to the last moment. Then
he described his sailing half the world over in search of them, how at
times he found a trail, only to lose it again.
Finally he told how at last he had found that the mother had been lost,
but the children saved.
"I was in Bombay," he continued, "in despair that I would ever find any
of you. At that time I was an old man before my time, for my conscience
gave me no rest. I went down to the quay to purchase a ticket for my
return to New York, and, true to the habit I had formed, I asked the
ticket-seller if he had ever heard anything of the survivors of the
steamer _Magnifique_.
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