“Certainly not,” I boldly ventured; “if such peculiarities were shown after the fright given her by the catastrophe which took place in the library.”
His eyes, which were fixed on mine, flashed, and his hands closed convulsively.
“We will not consider the subject,” he muttered, reseating himself in the chair from which he had risen.
I bowed again and went out. I did not dwell on the interview in my own mind nor did I allow myself to draw any conclusions from it, till I had carried the blotter into the southwest chamber of the Moore house and carefully compared the impressions made on it with the marks I had scratched on the surface of the mantel-shelf. This I did by laying the one over the other, after having made holes where his finger-tips had touched the blotter.
The holes in the blotter and the marks outlined upon the shelf coincided exactly.
IX.
JINNY
I have already mentioned the man whom I secretly looked upon as standing between me and all preferment. He was a good-looking fellow, but he wore a natural sneer which for some reason I felt to be always directed toward myself. This sneer grew pronounced about this time, and that was the reason, no doubt, why I continued to work as long as I did in secret. I dreaded the open laugh of this man, a laugh which always seemed hovering on his lips and which was only held in restraint by the awe we all felt of the major.
Notwithstanding, I made one slight move. Encountering the deputy-coroner, I ventured to ask if he was quite satisfied with the evidence collected in the Jeffrey case.
His surprise did not prevent him from asking my reasons for this question.
I replied to this effect: