Oh,
precious phoenix of a woman, you and I were of the same spirit,
kneaded into our clay! Through your father you won it--and I had it
from my mother--the primeval fire that burns through all obstacles
to its inveterate purpose!
I say that accident made a radical alteration of design vital, for I
had intended, on the night when Robert Redmayne would come and see
Bendigo, to murder the old sailor in his tower room and remove him
before morning with my wife's assistance. But the victim postponed
his own destruction, for upon the night when his death was intended,
during my previous conversation with him touching Jenny, I had
perceived, by his clumsy glances and evidence of anxiety, that
somebody else was in the tower room--unseen.
There was but one hiding-place and but one man likely to occupy it.
I did not indicate that I had discovered the secret and it was not
the detective who gave himself away; but, once alive to his
presence, I swiftly marked a flash of light at one of the little
ventilation holes in the cupboard and perceived that our sleuth
stood hid within it.
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