The years that had passed had left nothing of his old self, except the bright, straightforward look in his eyes.

There I found our nice boy again, and there I concluded to stop in my investigation.
"Welcome back to the old place, Mr.Franklin," I said.

"All the more welcome, sir, that you have come some hours before we expected you." "I have a reason for coming before you expected me," answered Mr.
Franklin.

"I suspect, Betteredge, that I have been followed and watched in London, for the last three or four days; and I have travelled by the morning instead of the afternoon train, because I wanted to give a certain dark-looking stranger the slip." Those words did more than surprise me.

They brought back to my mind, in a flash, the three jugglers, and Penelope's notion that they meant some mischief to Mr.Franklin Blake.
"Who's watching you, sir,--and why ?" I inquired.
"Tell me about the three Indians you have had at the house to-day," says Mr.Franklin, without noticing my question.