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Page 27
"Wa'al now," replied he, "this is curious. Here I've just been
answering the gentleman up stairs a heap of questions concerning that
self same old place, and now you come along with another batch of
them; just as if that rickety old den was the only spot of interest we
had in these parts."
"Perhaps that may be the truth," I laughed. "Just now when the papers
are full of these rogues, anything concerning them must be of
superior interest of course." And I pressed him again to give me a
history of the house and the two thieves who had inhabited it.
"Wa'al," drawled he "'taint much we know about them, yet after all it
may be a trifle too much for their necks some day. Time was when
nobody thought especial ill of them beyond a suspicion or so of their
being somewhat mean about money. That was when they kept an inn there,
but when the robbery of the Rutland bank was so clearly traced to
them, more than one man about here started up and said as how they
had always suspected them Shoenmakers of being villains, and even
hinted at something worse than robbery. But nothing beyond that one
rascality has yet been proved against them, and for that they were
sent to jail for twenty years as you know. Two months ago they
escaped, and that is the last known of them. A precious set, too,
they are; the father being only so much the greater rogue than the son
as he is years older."
"And the inn? When was that closed?"
"Just after their arrest."
"Has'nt it been opened since?"
"Only once when a brace of detectives came up from Troy to
investigate, as they called it."
"Who has the key?"
"Ah, that's more than I can tell you."
I dared not ask how my questions differed from those of Mr. Blake, nor
indeed touch upon that point in any way. I was chiefly anxious now
to return to New York without delay; so paying my bill I thanked the
landlord, and without waiting for the stage, remounted my horse and
proceeded at once to Putney where I was fortunate enough to catch the
evening train. By five o'clock next morning I was in New York where I
proceeded to carry out my programme by hastening at once to
headquarters and reporting my suspicions regarding the whereabouts of
the Schoenmakers. The information was received with interest and I
had the satisfaction of seeing two men despatched north that very day
with orders to procure the arrest of the two notable villains
wherever found.
CHAPTER VIII
A WORD OVERHEARD
That evening I had a talk with Fanny over the area gate. She came out
when she saw me approach, with her eyes staring and her whole form in
a flutter.
"O," she cried, "such things as I have heard this day!"
"Well," said I, "what? let me hear too." She put her hand on her
heart. "I never was so frightened," whispered she, "I thought I
should have fainted right away. To hear that elegant lady use such a
word as crime,--"
"What elegant lady?" interrupted I. "Don't begin in the middle of your
story, that's a good girl; I want to hear it all."
"Well," said she, calming down a little, "Mrs. Daniels had a visitor
to-day, a lady. She was dressed--"
"O, now," interrupted I for the second time, "you can leave that out.
Tell me what her name was and let the fol-de-rols go."
"Her name?" exclaimed the girl with some sharpness, "how should I know
her name; she did'nt come to see me."
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