He sat and turned the letter over several times, reread and reread it, and at last he muttered:
"I knew that mystery would turn up again. I felt certain of it, and here it is. I will go."
Thereupon he rang the office bell and issued an order for the packing of his traveling-case.
That next day the Penruddie train bore three passengers important to this history—Mr. Thaxton, Leicester and Stumpy.
Leicester saw Mr. Thaxton alight and knew that his letter had taken effect; he carefully avoided the keen eyes of the old lawyer, and he and Stumpy cut across a field near the station and left the village behind them.
Toward midday Stumpy cut out toward the village and found a boy loafing about. He gave him a letter for Job, the carrier, and told him to take it to him and give it him quietly.
The lad, delegated with a sixpence, tore off, and soon slipped into Job's hand this note:
"Be at the old chapel to-night at midnight. H. M."
Job read it and asked the boy who had given it to him.