Who was this unknown person on whose behalf Messrs.

Wilkins & Wilkins were seeking information respecting young Forrester?
It might be Scarfe, or Mr Frampton, or possibly some unheard-of relative, interested in the disposal of the late gallant officer's effects.

He could not assist the search.

The little he knew was probably already known to the lawyers, yet it excited him wildly to think that some one besides himself was in search of the lad whose memory had haunted him for so many months, and whom, even in his most despairing moments, he had never quite given up for lost.
True, he had long since ceased to believe that he was really to be found by searching.

Everything combined to baffle search, almost to forbid it, and yet he had constantly lived in a vague expectation of finding or hearing of him some day accidentally and unawares.