uarrel if they were together."

"For what purpose did Richard Hare bring down his gun--do you know?"

"It was to lend to my father. My father's gun had something the matter
with it, and was at the smith's. I had heard him, the previous day, ask
Mr. Richard to lend him one of his, and Mr. Richard said he would bring
one, as he did."

"You lodged the gun against the wall--safely?"

"Quite safely."

"Was it touched by you, after placing it there, or by the prisoner?"

"I did not touch it; neither did he, that I saw. It was that same gun
which was afterward found near my father, and had been discharged."

The next witness called was Otway Bethel. He also held share in the
curiosity of the public, but not in equal degree with Afy, still less
with Richard Hare. The substance of his testimony was as follows:--

"On the evening that Hallijohn was killed, I was in the Abbey Wood, and
I saw Richard Hare come down the path with a gun, as if he had come down
from his own home."

"Did Richard Hare see you?"

"No; he could not see me; I was right in the thicket. He went to the
cottage door, and was about to enter, when Afy Hallijohn came hastily
out of it, pulling the door to behind her, and holding it in her hand,
as if afraid he would go in. Some colloquy ensued, but I was too far off
to hear it; and then she took the gun from him and went indoors. Some
time after that I saw Richard Hare amid the trees at a distance, farther
off the cottage, then, than I was, and apparently watching the path. I
was wondering what he was up to, hiding there, when I head a shot fired,
close, as it seemed, to the cottage, and--"

"Stop a bit, witness. Could that shot have been fired by Richard Hare?"

"It could not. He was a quarter of a mile, nearly, away from it. I was
much nearer the cottage than he."

"Go on."

"I could not imagine what that shot meant, or who could have fired
it--not that I suspected mischief--and I knew that poachers did not
congregate so near Hallijohn's cottage. I set off to reconnoiter, and
as I turned the corner, which brought the house within my view, I saw
Captain Thorn, as he was called, come leaping out of it. His face was
white with terror, his breath was gone--in short, I never saw any living
man betray so much agitation. I caught his arm as he would have passed
me. 'What have you been about?' I asked. 'Was it you that fired?' He--"

"Stay. Why did you suspect him?"

"From his state of excitement--fr