Page:Fletcher - The Mortover Grange Affair.pdf/121



Within a moment of its reception Wedgwood had read the contents of the telegram and was hastening upstairs to pack his bag; in less than ten minutes he had paid his bill and was hurrying away from the hotel to the station. For the telegraphic message which, as he had expected before opening it, was from the inspector at Hunter Street, was peremptory—Return at once highly important news.

Wedgwood was lucky in catching a local train that was just starting for Derby, and in getting at Derby an immediate connection for London: by two o'clock of the afternoon he walked into the police-station, wondering what tidings awaited him. He was not kept in suspense; the inspector, taking him aside, uttered four words without preface.

"That manuscript's turned up!"

Wedgwood set down his belongings and gaped his astonishment. This was the last news he had expected to hear. That anybody should deliberately murder a man in order to