"Enough!" exclaimed Lord Ellingham abruptly. "I have now a question to ask you, Mr. Tidmarsh:—Were you not my gaoler when I was a prisoner in the subterranean?"
"Well, my lord—it's no use denying it," answered the man; "but——"
"Spare your comments. I cannot complain of the way in which you executed a task doubtless imposed on you by your master here. Moreover, you even showed me some indulgence, by permitting me to write those letters to my friends——"
"Give my friend Bones his due, my lord," interrupted Tidmarsh; "for I showed 'em to him first before I posted them."
"And as they could do no harm, I let them go," hastily exclaimed Old Death; "for I did not want to punish you more than I could help. Besides, I was glad you wrote them;—in the first place because they prevented any noise amongst your friends on account of your disappearance—and, secondly, because the one you wrote to Rainford was enough to convince him he had nothing more to hope from you."
"Even while you seek to conciliate me, you cannot prevent the manifestation of your fiendish hate against him who was the son of your sister Octavia!" said the Earl, gazing upon Old Death in profound surprise,—surprise that his heart could be so irredeemably black. "But now answer me another question," he continued after a few moments' pause: "how came you to know that I was likely to use my interest or my gold on behalf of Thomas Rainford?"
"My spies were stationed about Horsemonger Lane gaol," answered Old Death; "and I had a lodging in the immediate neighbourhood. They came and told me that you had just gone into the prison to see Rainford; and I concluded that you must already be aware of the relationship which existed between you. To resolve and to act with me are the same thing; and I sent back my men to seize you and convey you to the subterranean."
"And why had you stationed spies about the gaol?" demanded the Earl.
"Because I suspected that Rainford would send for you, or that you would go to him of your own accord," replied Old Death; "for he had taken from me the papers which proved who he was—and I supposed that his first act on possessing them, must have been to communicate with you; and in that I cannot have been far wrong."
By dint of questioning and cross-questioning, the following additional facts were elicited;—