Luker. What follows? Mr. Luker feels alarmed for the safety
of 'a valuable of great price,' which he has got in the house. He lodges
it privately (under a general description) in his bankers' strong-room.
Wonderfully clever of him: but the Indians are just as clever on their
side. They have their suspicions that the 'valuable of great price' is
being shifted from one place to another; and they hit on a singularly
bold and complete way of clearing those suspicions up. Whom do they
seize and search? Not Mr. Luker only--which would be intelligible
enough--but Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite as well. Why? Mr. Ablewhite's
explanation is, that they acted on blind suspicion, after seeing him
accidentally speaking to Mr. Luker. Absurd! Half-a-dozen other people
spoke to Mr. Luker that morning. Why were they not followed home too,
and decoyed into the trap? No! no! The plain inference is, that Mr.
Ablewhite had his private interest in the 'valuable' as well as Mr.
Luker, and that the Indians were so uncertain as to which of the two
had the disposal of it, that there was no alternative but to search them
both. Public opinion says that, Miss Clack. And public opinion, on this
occasion, is not easily refuted.
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