He was convinced that his son knew where the judge's daughter was, although his own efforts to discover her whereabouts had been unsuccessful.

Sergeant Ellison had confessed absolute failure; Miss Rossmore, he reported, had disappeared as completely as if the earth had swallowed her, and further search was futile.
Knowing well his son's impulsive, headstrong disposition, Ryder, Sr.

believed him quite capable of marrying the girl secretly any time.

The only thing that John Ryder did not know was that Shirley Rossmore was not the kind of a girl to allow any man to inveigle her into a secret marriage.

The Colossus, who judged the world's morals by his own, was not of course aware of this, and he worried night and day thinking what he could do to prevent his son from marrying the daughter of the man he had wronged.
The more he pondered over it, the more he regretted that there was not some other girl with whom Jefferson could fall in love and marry.