" And he laughed in his old boisterous way.
"The more difficult, I daresay," replied I, as I fixed a pretty
inquisitive gaze on him, "that you have a duplicate to your real name of
Charles Rogers."
"'Tis a lie!" he exclaimed. "My father was--was--yes--an artist in
Bologna--the cleverest magician in Italy."
"And that is the reason," said I calmly, "that your brother the doctor
works his tricks so cleverly at the Moated Grange."
Subtle officers accomplish much by attacks of surprise--going home with
a fact known to the criminal to be true, but supposed by him to be
unknown to all the world besides. I had acted on this principle, and the
effect was singular. His tongue, which had laid in a stock of nervous
fluid for roaring like a steam-boiler a little opened, was palsied. He
turned on me a blank look; then, directing his eye to the woman, "You
infernal hag," he exclaimed, "all this comes from you!"
"I deny it," said the woman, as she left his side and came round to
mine. "But I now know, what I always suspected, that you are a villain.
Sir," she continued, "this man, and his brother Dr. Rogers, prevailed
upon me to give them a paper, to enable them to get out of Colonel
Graeme the money he won from my husband. I believe they have got it, and
that they are keeping it from me."
"They have not got it," said I, "and never will.
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