and jewels, and my lady wouldn't give 'em. He threatened to do
something or tell something; then _she_ threatened to have him put
in Chesholm jail if he did. He, Jimmy, though full of curiosity,
was afraid the man would spring out and catch him, and so at that
juncture he came away. There! that was all, if it did the gentleman
any good, he was welcome to it.

It did the gentleman a world of good--it complicated matters
beautifully. Five minutes ago the case looked dark as night for Miss
Catheron--here was a rift in her sky. Who was this man--_was_ it
Miss Catheron's scapegrace brother? Jimmy could tell him nothing more.
"If you wants to find out about Miss Inez' brother," said Jimmy, "you
go to old Hooper. _He_ knows. All _I_ know is, that they say he was
an uncommon bad lot; but old Hooper, he's knowed him ever since he
was a young'un and lived here. If old Hooper says he wasn't here the
night Sir Victor brought my lady home, don't you believe him--he was,
and he's been seen off and on in the grounds since. The women folks
in the servants' hall, they say, as how he must have been an old
sweetheart of my lady's. You go to old Hooper and worrit it out of
him."

Mr. Superintendent Ferrick went. How artfully he began his work, how
delicately and skillfully he "pumped" old Hooper dry, no words can
tell. Mr. Juan Catheron _was_ an "uncommon bad lot," he had come to
the house and forced an entrance into the dining-room the night of
Lady Catheron's arrival--there had been a quarrel, and he had been
compelled to leave. Bit by bit this was drawn from Mr. Hooper. Since
then, Jackson, the head groom, and Edwards, the valet, had seen him
hovering about the grounds watching the house.