The Dugdale Millions — page 260: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

250 THE DUGDALE MILLIONS. occurred to him, that if the box contained the papers which Mrs. Jenkins said it did and if they revealed the truth as to the adoption of the child, it was strange that Moore should have taken the trouble to have vis- ited Mrs. Jenkins in the quest of further information. So strong was his thought as indicating that either the papers did not reveal the whole truth, or that after all the box had not been secured by the conspirators, that he returned to Mrs. Jenkins to question her more particularly as to what had occurred between herself and Moore. The second interview with her was somewhat more satisfactory. Mrs. Jenkins was quite certain that Moore had told her that Mr. Mason had learned that the box had been delivered, only to learn at the same time that it had been stolen, and that he had come in the endeavor to inform himself as to its contents, because, having been stolen, Mr. Mason had not been able todoso. This seemed to show to Dick that the conspirators were not themselves acquainted with the contents, but he could arrive at no conclusion which seemed probable as to why this should be, once having had it in their possession. He thought perhaps that in the hurry it had been lost, but as it was a mere matter of speculation he thought that he could indulge himself in a dozen different ways without arriving at anything definite. On the whole his expedition to Philadelphia only seemed to make the case more mys- terious and more complicated. On his arrival in the city he hastened at once to Captain Lawton, who told him that no trace had been recovered as to Ransom or Bob, and that Moore had appeared at Orton Pierson’s house quite early in the morning, and after a brief inter- view with Pierson had left, going about his ordinary pursuits. The detective told him that he had madecom- ‘yopededd little progress in establishing the theory he ad accepted from Dick, and apprehended that it would be a work of considerable time to gather the informa- CoOMmicbooks.€© 3