When Tony found himself left a prisoner in his enemy's room, he did not immediately make an effort to escape, in fact, he did not feel particularly alarmed.
"I am in a large city, and there are other lodgers in this building. There can be no danger. I will wait awhile and think over what Rudolph has told me. Can it be true that I am heir to a large estate in England, and that he can restore me to it if he will? He can have no motive for deceiving me. It must be true."
Tony felt that he would give a great deal to know more. Where was this estate, and who now held it? It occurred to him that some where about the room he might find some clew to the mystery. He immediately began to explore it.
Rudolph was not a literary man. He had neither books nor papers whose tell-tale testimony might convict him. In fact, the best of his personal possessions was very small. A few clothes were lying about the room. Tony decided to examine the pockets of these, in the hope of discovering something in his interest. Finally, he found in the pocket of a shooting coat a small memorandum book, in which a few entries, chiefly of bets, had been made. In these Tony felt no interest, and he was about to throw down the book, when his eye caught this entry:
"Dead broke. Must write to Mrs. Middleton for more money."
Tony's heart beat rapidly.
This must be the person from whom Rudolph received his income, and, by consequence the person who was in fraudulent possession of the estate that was rightfully his.
"Mrs. Middleton!"
"I wish I knew where she lives," thought our hero. "No doubt there are hundreds of the name in England."
This might be, but probably there was but one Mrs. Middleton in the possession of an estate worth two thousand pounds rental.