Through what devious ways and
from what unexpected sources had I come upon this knowledge?
"Mrs. Jeffrey, or Miss Moore, as she was then, told Jim to seat the
gentleman in the library," I now said. "Why?"
"I do not know. He told her the gentleman's name and then she
whispered him that. I heard her, and that was why I got money, too.
But it's all gone now. Oh, sir, when are you going back?"
I started to my feet. Was it in answer to this appeal or because
I realized that I had come at last upon a clue calling for immediate
action?
"I am going now," said I, "and you are going with me. Run! for
the train we take leaves inside of ten minutes. My business here
is over."
XX
"THE COLONEL'S OWN"
Words can not express the tediousness of that return journey. The
affair which occupied all my thoughts was as yet too much enveloped
in mystery for me to contemplate it with anything but an anxious
and inquiring mind. While I clung with new and persistent hope to
the thread which had been put in my hand, I was too conscious of
the maze through which we must yet pass, before the light could be
reached, to feel that lightness of spirit which in itself might
have lessened the hours, and made bearable those days of forced
inaction. To beguile the way a little, I made a complete analysis
of the facts as they appeared to me in the light of this latest bit
of evidence.
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