."

"May I inquire what was the nature of your friendship for Miss Afy
Hallijohn?"

"I loved her with an honorable love, as I might have done by any
young lady in my own station of life. I would not have married her
in opposition to my father and mother; but I told Afy that if she was
content to wait for me until I was my own master I would then make her
my wife."

"You had no views toward her of a different nature?"

"None; I cared for her too much for that; and I respected her father.
Afy's mother had been a lady, too, although she had married Hallijohn,
who was but clerk to Mr. Carlyle. No; I never had a thought of wrong
toward Afy--I never could have had."

"Now relate the occurrences of the evening?"

"Afy would not admit me, and we had a few words over it; but at length I
went away, first giving her the gun, and telling her it was loaded. She
lodged it against the wall, just inside the door, and I went into the
wood and waited, determined to see whether or not Thorn was with her,
for she had denied that he was. Locksley saw me there, and asked why I
was hiding. I did not answer; but I went further off, quite out of view
of the cottage. Some time afterward, less than half an hour, I heard a
shot in the direction of the cottage. Somebody was having a late pop at
the partridge, I thought. Just then I saw Otway Bethel emerge from the
trees, not far from me, and run toward the cottage. My lord," added
Richard Hare, looking at the judge, "that was the shot that killed
Hallijohn!"

"Could the shot," asked the counsel, "have been fired by Otway Bethel?"

"It could not. It was much further off. Bethel disappeared, and in
another minute there came some one flying down the path leading from the
cottage. It was Thorn, and evidently in a state of intense terror. His
face was livid, his eyes staring, and he panted and shook like one in
the ague. Past me he tore, on down the path, and I afterwards heard the
sound of his horse galloping away; it had been tied in the wood."

"Did you follow him?"

"No. I wondered what had happened to put him in that state; but I made
haste to the cottage, intending to reproach Afy with her duplicity. I
leaped up the two steps, and fell over the prostrate body of Hallijohn.
He was lying dead within the door. My gun, just discharged, was flung on
the floor, its contents in Hallijohn's side."

You might have heard a pin drop in court, so intense was the interest.

"There appeared to be