He remained silent, with a smile of incredulity playing about his mouth.
The truth was this. Within his heart he had already formed a fixed intention that the dead man’s secret—the most remarkable secret of the age—should be his, and his alone!
Chapter Five.
Spreads the Net.
The deformed man existed in a whirl of excitement. He already felt himself rich beyond his wildest dreams. He built castles in the air like a child, and smiled contentedly when rich people—some of the hunting crowd—passed him by unrecognised.
During the three days that followed, Frank Farquhar held several consultations with him—long earnest talks sometimes at the Manor or else while walking across that heath-land around the district known to the followers to hounds as the Horsford Hanglands.
The villagers who saw them together made no comment. As was well known, the little Doctor and Lady Gavin’s clever young brother were friends.
Diamond had enjoined the strictest secrecy, but Farquhar, as a keen man of business and determined to put his knowledge to the best advantage, had already exchanged several telegrams with some person in London, and was now delaying matters with Diamond until he obtained a decided reply.