Pending this return, Jennings sorted
his evidence.
Then he was surprised to receive a letter from Mrs. Herne,
stating that she had returned to her place at Hampstead, and
asking him to call. "I understand from Mr. Clancy," wrote
Mrs. Herne, "that you wish to see me in connection with the
death of my poor friend. I shall beat home to-morrow at
four." Then followed the signature, and Jennings put away the
note with a rather disappointed feeling. If he was right in
suspecting Mrs. Herne, she certainly felt little fear, else
she would have declined to see him. After all, his
supposition that the two women and the four men formed a gang
of coiners, who worked in the unfinished house, might turn out
to be wrong. "But I'll see Mrs. Herne and have a long talk
with her," said Jennings to himself. "And then I'll show the
knife to Cuthbert Mallow. Also I may examine the unfinished
house. If coiners have been there, or are there, I'll soon
find out. Mallow hunting for ghosts, probably, made only a
cursory examination. And I'll take Drudge to Hampstead with
me."
Drudge was a detective who adored Jennings and thought him the
very greatest man in England. He was usually employed in
watching those whom his superior suspected, and Jennings could
always rely on his orders being honestly executed. In this
instance Drudge was to wait some distance from the house of
Mrs. Herne until Jennings came out again. Then on the
conversation which had taken place would depend further
orders.
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