Chapter 45 Section 12

"There's a thief!" The side door of the library was kicked open, and a chunky man in a fleece nightgown rushed in, "There's a thief! Come out, or I'll call someone!" The man stretched out the blindingly bright lantern, then stopped again, looking very shocked.He looked them up and down with wide eyes. "Mr. Lowell? Is that you? Mr. Fields here?" "Landridge?" Fields said aloud. "Landridge Tailor?" "Well, it's me." Landridge responded shyly, shuffling forward. Longfellow heard movement in the house and ran in too.

"Mr. Longfellow?" Landridge quickly took off his hat. "You live here, Landridge? What have you done with the proofs?" Lowell demanded. Landridge was confused. "Live here? No, my house is two houses away, Mr. Lowell. I heard a noise and thought I'd come over and see. I thought someone was stealing. They haven't got it all Crate it and take it away. You can see that the things in the library haven't been touched much." "Who hasn't moved everything?" Lowell asked. "Well, of course it's a relation of his. Who else could it be?"

Fields walked back and held up the lantern to shine on the bookshelf, and found that there were surprisingly many "Bibles" on it. He was so surprised that he couldn't speak.At least there are thirty or forty volumes.He pulled out the biggest one. Lowell knew exactly where in Cambridge Landridge lived.He raced through the blocks and the locations of the two houses in his mind.He tried his best to adjust his eyes to the dark room, and saw a familiar face among the row of blurred portraits hanging on the wall. "It is a restless day, my friends, I can tell you," continued the tailor, lamenting, "not even the dead man."

"The dead man?" Lowell repeated. "The dead man," Fields whispered, handing Lowell a still-closed Bible.Its title-leaf was neatly inked with a complete genealogical chart in the handwriting of the house's late owner, the Reverend Elisha Talbot.