“Oh, no, no, no!”
“Either you must go there, or I shall.”
“What is it that you would have me do there?”
“You need not, necessarily, go to the old home. Your search will be in London, rather than in that neighborhood. But I want you to search out the career of that girl from the time she left home until it was reported that she had died in a London hospital.”
“Must I do that, Mr. Carter?”
“Unless you prefer to leave it for me to do. But you are in possession of facts which will aid you materially in such a search, and you can make it more quickly, because you will know exactly where to go in doing it. I would lose valuable time in getting those facts together, unless you related them to me, and you are reluctant to do that. So go there and make the search in your own way. I do not require of you all the names and particulars; all I wish to know is the result.”
“And you? What will you be doing in the meantime?”
“I shall go to Virginia. I start this evening. I am convinced that the only weak spot in the armor of Bare-Faced Jimmy is through that woman, Juno. I shall search her out in some way. I shall follow on her back track—if there is one. It may be that my search and yours will bring us face to face in the end—and it may not be. Nobody can tell as to that.”
“No; nobody can tell as to that.”
“So, you will do as I ask?”