There's a curious thing; I don't see much difference between Stormont's object and the burglar's.
Both seemed to want the letters Strange wrote to the girl." "Now I come to think of it, perhaps there wasn't much difference.

The fellow stole nothing, although he broke open the writing-table and Miss Strange's trunk.

She says he disturbed nothing else.

But the matter gets no clearer." Scott smiled.

"My explanation is that Stormont tried to buy the letters after he found they couldn't be stolen." "But he'd have to trust the man he hired to break into the house; and this would put him in the fellow's power." "I reckon the man told him about the lode; Miss Strange states that he was lame," Scott remarked in a meaning tone.