Not long after he had gone, Cathcart and MacRae arrived on horseback.
They said there were three other saddle horses coming after them.
Cathcart had a list of all the churches, and the manses of all the
clergy of all shades of doctrine, in Buchan; and a pretty formidable
list it made. He had also a map of Aberdeen County, and a list of such
houses as had been let for the summer or at any period during it. Such
was of course only an agent's list, and would not contain every letting
privately.
We set to work at once with the map and the lists; and soon marked the
names which were likely to be of any use to us, those which had at any
time lately been let to strangers. Then Cathcart and Gordon and all the
detectives, except the chief, went off on horseback with a list of
places to visit. They were all to return to report as soon as possible.
The chief kept tab of the places to be visited by each. When the rest
had gone, I asked him if he knew where any of those supposed to be
of the gang lived in the neighbourhood. He said he felt awkward in
answering the question, and he certainly looked it. "The fact is," he
said sheepishly, "since that young lady kicked those names on the dirt,
and so into my thick head, I know pretty well who they are. Had I known
before, I could easily have got those who could identify them; for I
never saw them myself. I take it that 'Feathers' is none other than
Featherstone who was with Whisky Tommy--which was Tom Mason--in the
A. T. Stewart ransom case. If those two are in it, most likely the
one they called the 'Dago' is a half-bred Spaniard that comes from
somewheres over here. That Max that she named, if he's the same man,
is a Dutchman; he's about the worst of the bunch. Then for this
game there's likely to be two Chicago bums from the Levee, way-down
politicians and heelers. It's possible that there are two more; a man
from Frisco that they call Sailor Ben--what they call a cosmopolite for
he doesn't come from nowhere in particular; and a buck nigger from Noo
Orleans. A real bad 'un he is; of all the.... But I hope he isn't in the
gang. If he is, we haven't no time to lose."
His words made my blood run cold. Was this the crowd, within whose
danger I had consented that Marjory should stand. The worst kind of
scoundrels from all over the earth. Oh! what it was to be powerless,
and to know that she was in their hands. It took me all my strength of
purpose not to weep, out of very despair. I think the detective must
have wished to cheer me a little, for he went on:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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