‘You are acquainted with Michael Rust?’
‘I am,’ replied she, in the same quick, nervous manner.
‘How did you first become acquainted with him?’
‘You know all that,’ was the abrupt reply. ‘Why should I go over it again? It’s all true, as you said it.’
Holmes paused to make a note of it, and then asked:
‘What is the name of the person, in the country, who took charge of the children?’
‘I don’t know,’ replied the woman. ‘Michael Rust sent a man for them, who took them off.’
‘Who was this man?’
‘I don’t know; I never saw him. Mr. Blossom gave the children to him, and never told me his name.’
‘Good,’ said Holmes, in his short, abrupt manner: ‘Where are these children now?’