breakfast is over I shall be off to the race-ground, and so shirk that
ranting old bore; you'll call on him instead, and settle it somehow."
He was out of the room before she could answer.

Mrs. Crane found it no easy matter to soothe the infuriate manager when
he heard Losely was gone to amuse himself at the race-course. Nor did
she give herself much trouble to pacify Mr. Rugge's anger or assist his
investigations. Her interest in the whole affair seemed over. Left thus
to his own devices, Rugge, however, began to institute a sharp, and what
promised to be an effective, investigation. He ascertained that the
fugitive certainly had not left by the railway or by any of the public
conveyances; he sent scoots over all the neighbourhood: he enlisted the
sympathy of the police, who confidently assured him that they had "a
network over the three kingdoms." Rugge's suspicions were directed to
Waife: he could collect, however, no evidence to confirm them. No person
answering to Waife's description had been seen in the town. Once,
indeed, Rugge was close on the right scent; for, insisting upon Waife's
one eye, and his possession of a white dog, he was told by several
witnesses that a man blind of two eyes, and led by a black dog, had been
close before the stage, just previous to the performance. But then the
clown had spoken to that very man; all the Thespian company had observed
him; all of them had known Waife familiarly for years; and all deposed
that any creature more unlike to Waife than the blind man could not be
turned out of Nature's workshop. But where was that blind man? They
found out the wayside inn in which he had taken a lodging for the night;
and there it was ascertained that he had paid for his room beforehand,
stating that he should start for the race-course early in the morning.
Rugge himself set out to the racecourse to kill two birds with one
stone,--catch Mr. Losely, examine the blind man himself.