The two men retired,—and the stranger desired the gentleman to remove the bandage, adding, "Dr. Lascelles, you will pardon this apparent outrage, the motives of which have doubtless been explained to you by my dependants."
"I am led to believe that my presence is required to witness the confession of two criminals," said the physician, affecting complete ignorance alike of the mysterious master of the house and his affairs; "and if no treachery be intended towards me, I do not feel inclined to complain much of the treatment I have already received."
"I am delighted to hear you express yourself in these moderate terms," observed the prime mover of those widely ramified schemes which are now occupying the reader's attention. "Allow me to introduce you to a gentleman whose name is doubtless familiar to you—Sir Christopher Blunt:" then, turning towards the knight, he added, "Sir Christopher, this is Dr. Lascelles, the eminent physician."
"I think I have had the honour to meet Sir Christopher Blunt on a former occasion—at Lady Hatfield's," said the doctor, offering the knight his hand.
"It is therefore a strange coincidence which has thus brought you together again under such circumstances as the present," observed the stranger. "But you are both no doubt anxious to depart hence as speedily as possible, and I will not detain you longer than is absolutely necessary."
He then rang a bell; and in a few minutes four of his dependants entered the room, leading in Tim the Snammer and Josh Pedler, both strongly bound with cords, and having handkerchiefs over their eyes. These bandages were removed—the two villains cast rapid and searching glances around them—the stranger ordered them to be seated and his dependants to retire—and the business of that memorable night commenced.
CHAPTER XCII.
THE CONFESSION.
"Sir Christopher Blunt," said the stranger, "in your capacity of one of his Majesty's Justices of the Peace, you will have the kindness to receive the confession of the two men now before you; and you, Dr. Lascelles, as a gentleman of the highest respectability, will witness the present proceedings."
Thus speaking, he drew a writing-table close up to the place where Sir Christopher Blunt was sitting; and the knight, inflated with the pride of his official station, and conscious of the importance of the part which he was now enacting, assumed as dignified and solemn a deportment as possible. A Bible was produced; and he directed the two prisoners to be sworn, the stranger administering the oath.
"Now, my men," said the Justice of the Peace, "it is my duty to hear and receive any confession which you may have to make to me. But I give you due warning that it is to be published, and, from what I have already been told, will be used elsewhere. Remember, also, that you are now upon your oaths; and you must consider yourselves in just the same position as if you were in a regular police-court, under usual circumstances."