“And have they any notion who committed this audacious robbery, my boy?”
“I heard the butler say he had picked up a sword in the grounds, with the name of ‘Tom Bates’ upon it.’
“T-h-e devil!” said Jack, who now, for the first time, perceived that Tom had lost his sword in the hurry and scuffle of getting away in the boat.
Old Bates, himself, felt thunderstruck when he heard this, for, until that moment, he had thought nothing about the sword he had lost.
He poured out a goblet of wine, drank it off at a draught to drown his rising anger.
“What else did they discover?” Jack asked.
“There is a tall black slave at the mansion, who, by signs and writing, made known to all assembled that there were several crown officers among the robbers.”
“Worse and worse,” said Bates.
For a few moments no one spoke.
The post-boy left the house, and in a short time the house closed for the night.