"He gave himself up, I said," repeated Mr. Pinkerton.
"Jim Cummings gave himself up," said Dan slowly as if trying to grasp the idea.
"Exactly. He saw we had him and that he couldn't get away, so to make his sentence as light as possible he did the best thing he could do and surrendered."
Almost dumbfounded by this surprise Dan sat speechless and stared blankly at the detective.
"Do you know, Mr. Moriarity," Mr. Pinkerton continued, "you strike me as being remarkably clever."
Arousing himself Dan answered in a savage tone:
"What are you driving at now?"
"I mean that up to the time that Cummings surrendered himself we thought he was the principal man in the case, the prime mover and director of the whole affair, but now we find we are mistaken. That is why I say you are clever. You simply used him as a cat's paw, and played hide and seek with our whole force, and a man that can do that as long as you did is remarkably clever," and Mr. Pinkerton smiled admiringly at the man who sat before him. Puzzled at the words, and trying to see beneath the surface, Dan said: "Oh! come now, stop your chaffing, I won't squeal, and you can't make me. What do you want me for anyway?"
Mr. Pinkerton's face became stern, and dropping the tone of levity which he had employed, he opened the letter Sam had forged, and suddenly handing it to Dan, said:
"We want to know if what Jim Cummings says there is true."