“Precisely,” said the detective, removing the pipe from his mouth, and looking hard into Jacob’s eyes.
“You arrested a man lately who belonged to the Silver Mob,” continued Jacob. “On examining his papers you found a letter, or part of a letter written in the same cipher, and signed with the same hieroglyphics.”
“I did, I did. What is the good of going into that over again?”
“I want to get it firm in my mind,” continued Jacob. “You sent me to Rowton Heights because your suspicions pointed to one man.”
“Good Heavens! yes,” said Crossley, jumping up as he spoke. “It is ridiculous for a man like me to feel anything, but you don’t know, Short, what I have suffered on account of these suspicions. The young lady wants to go on with this matter and yet——”
“If your suspicions and mine are correct,” continued Jacob in a calm voice, “the business will break her heart—still business is business. I don’t mean to drop the thing now. It is true at the present moment I have not found any cipher at Rowton Heights like that which you hold in your hands, but I think I see the way to doing so before long. I also believe that I shall discover the mark for which we are searching. It won’t be long, therefore, before we put our hands upon the man.”
“And he is?” said Crossley, bending forward, his voice dropping to a whisper; “speak low, Jacob, for Heaven’s sake!”
CHAPTER XXIII.
DAME ROWTON.
Jacob Short returned the next day to Rowton Heights, and almost immediately afterwards the excitement and confusion incident to the great ball began. Many fresh servants were engaged for the occasion; a string band from London was secured; in short, no expense was spared to make the occasion a worthy one, and to render the ball as brilliant as possible. The old ball-room was too magnificent in itself to require much decoration. The carved oak, which covered it from ceiling to floor, was re-polished, but the windows were not draped, Nature’s draping of ivy and old creepers being considered far more effective than anything man could devise. The ball-room, which was over one hundred feet in length and thirty feet in breadth, was one of the most celebrated rooms in the whole county. In the old days, brave knights and fair ladies had held high revelry here. It was well known also that more than one personage celebrated in the history of England had figured in the giddy mazes of the dance in the old room. For years it had been shut up, as misfortune and even poverty had come to the noble old family who for so many generations had reigned at Rowton Heights. The occasion, therefore, of its being re-opened was considered a truly auspicious one, and certainly Rowton and his wife could not have discovered a more popular way of entertaining the county than by allowing them to dance once more in the oak ball-room. It had been long years now since Rowton Heights had so resounded to mirth and merry-making.