"Why, it is Mr. Hodgson to the life!" she cried. "Aquiline nose, high stock, pointed collar and spectacles--the very man himself! How did this come into your possession, dear?"
"There's a pretty question to ask! I did think you would have recognized my handiwork."
"Yours? You clever darling! Of course, I have known for a long time--which means for a few months--that you can draw and paint--a little; but I did not know that you could hit anyone off in this sort of way."
"In the case of old Hodgson, you have only to draw his nose and chin in outline, and you have the man himself."
"But I had not the least idea that you had ever seen Mr. Hodgson."
"Neither had I, till the occasion of his last visit. You told me when he was expected, and I made it my business to look out for him and have a good stare at him. The moment I got back home I sat down and made the sketch I have just shown you."
"The likeness is unmistakable; but I fail to see of what use it will be in enabling you to trace the original."
"As soon as I had finished my sketch I hurried off to the railway station and sought out the station-master, to whom I am well known, through having attended his wife last winter when she was ill. Handing him the sketch I said, 'The original of this will leave here by train in the course of a few hours from now. I want you to ascertain for me to what station he books himself.' In the course of the evening I made a point of seeing the station-master again. 'The old gentleman with the remarkable nose,' he told me, 'had in his possession the second half of a return ticket between Stavering and Ashdown, of which one of my men had collected the first half earlier in the day.' Inquiry on my part, my geographical knowledge being at fault, elicited the information that Stavering is a small country town on the borders of Derbyshire and Yorkshire. Having thus got firm hold of what I may call link number one, I need scarcely inform so perspicacious a young person as yourself that the first step in the voyage of discovery I purpose taking will be to book myself to Stavering, and, once there--as they say in boys' story-books--set to work to track the miscreant to his lair."
"It seems to me that you are a dreadfully artful creature, far more so, in fact, than I had any idea of," said Hermia, with a little toss of her head; "but I daresay if you were to fail as a doctor, you might perhaps find a situation on the detective force." But even while her tongue was thus gently flouting him, her eyes were speaking a different language, and one which by this time--so assiduous had been his studies--Clem had learned to read like a book.
A few more days sufficed to complete Clem's preparations. Titus Vallance came down from London, and was duly installed as his locum tenens. Neither to his brother nor to John Brancker did he afford the faintest hint that any object other than the need for change and rest was taking him from home.