"They call you the fool of the family," she replied. "But to me you were always bright and amiable."
This conversation was interrupted by the entrance of Thompson, who held some papers in his hand, which he was examining with apparent interest. Suddenly he uttered a loud cry of rage.
"A thousand curses!" he exclaimed. "This is bad luck!"
"What is?" inquired his wife.
"If we had only known who this fellow was he would not have got off so easily."
"And who is he?"
"Who? The famous detective Berghausen, and here in my hand is a warrant for the arrest of Smithers for robbing his employers in New York."
Thompson bit his lips and frowned darkly, as if his mind was ill at ease.
"I ought to kill Berghausen," he said, as if talking to himself. "It is the only way to play a safe game, but if I ride after him I may miss the silver, and not have a chance of such a stake again."
Setting his broad-brimmed hat jauntily on one side of his head, he quitted the cavern.