That _is_ a stubborn fact. Well,
it's a mysterious affair, and it will need a better detective than
myself, I fancy, to clear it up. I suppose we may as well go home."
III.
A week had not gone by when I received a letter from the Secretary of
the East Anglian Railway Company, requesting the favor of my attendance
at a special board meeting, not then many days distant. No reasons were
alleged, and no apologies offered, for this demand upon my time; but
they had heard, it was clear, of my inquiries anent the missing director,
and had a mind to put me through some sort of official examination upon
the subject. Being still a guest at Dumbleton Hall, I had to go up to
London for the purpose, and Jonathan Jelf accompanied me. I found the
direction of the Great East Anglian line represented by a party of some
twelve or fourteen gentlemen seated in solemn conclave round a huge
green-baize table, in a gloomy board-room, adjoining the London
terminus.
Being courteously received by the chairman (who at once began by saying
that certain statements of mine respecting Mr.
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