“It was very clever of you to get the finger-prints as you did,” she said. “But I knew that I could not be mistaken in the man.”
“There was only the ghost of a chance that the man was an impostor,” said Jack; “but I felt bound to leave no stone—oh, there’s that phrase buzzing about me again!”
“You were quite right, dear Jack,” she said. “No stone should be left unturned in digging the foundation for our case.”
Nothing further passed between them on this point; but two days later Jack received a private letter from the governor of the prison, stating that he had just resumed his duty after taking his annual leave, and that he had seen the letter which his deputy had answered.
“I can easily understand that you should be interested in an enquiry of the nature of that suggested by your communication,” he added; “and though the reply which was sent to you may not have been just the one for which you hoped, yet I think it possible that it may be in my power to give you some assistance in any investigation you or your lawyers may be making in regard to Marcus Blaydon. It would not be regular to do so by letter, but if you could make it convenient to pay me a visit I might be able to place you in possession of one or two interesting—perhaps they may even turn out to be important—facts which came to my knowledge respecting the man when he was in my charge.
“When I read in the English newspapers, which I received in Switzerland, the particulars of the case in which Marcus Blaydon played so sinister a part, I made up my mind to place myself in communication with you; and I would have done so even if your letters had not been put into my hands on my return.”
“It may mean a great deal or it may mean nothing,” remarked Jack, passing this communication on to Priscilla.
Of course, Priscilla felt inclined, on a first reading of the note, to attribute a great deal of importance to it. “Why should the prison official take the trouble to write asking you to meet him if he was not sure that what he had to say was vital?” she asked Jack. But a second reading caused her to be less sanguine.
“It is just as you say it is: the man is guarded in his words; they may mean a great deal or they may mean very little,” she said. “But he is in an official position, and no doubt he has had experience of curious cases and of everything that has a bearing upon them; and I can’t think that he would have taken the trouble to write to you or to ask you to visit him unless he had something important to tell you.”
“He says it may turn out to be important,” said Jack; “but just now he thinks that it is only interesting. I am inclined to believe that it will never get beyond that qualification. You see, if he himself had thought that what he knew was vital to our interests he would have telegraphed to us the moment the first newspapers came into his hands.”