gammon, Carlyle. I have been on the tramp through France and
Germany. Man likes a change sometimes. As to the revered colonel, he
would not be inconsolable if he saw me nailed up in a six-foot box, and
carried out feet foremost."

"Bethel, I have a question to ask you," continued Mr. Carlyle, dropping
his light manner and his voice together. "Take your thoughts back to the
night of Hallijohn's murder."

"I wish you may get it," cried Mr. Bethel. "The reminiscence is not
attractive."

"You'll do it," quietly said Mr. Carlyle. "It has been told me, though
it did not appear at the inquest, that Richard Hare held a conversation
with you in the wood a few minutes after the deed was done. Now--"

"Who told you that?" interrupted Bethel.

"That is not the question. My authority is indisputable."

"It is true that he did. I said nothing about it, for I did not want to
make the case worse against Dick Hare than it already was. He certainly
did accost me, like a man flurried out of his life."

"Asking if you had seen a certain lover of Afy's fly from the cottage.
One Thorn."

"That was the purport. Thorn, Thorn--I think Thorn was the name he
mentioned. My opinion was, that Dick was either wild or acting a part."

"Now, Bethel, I want you to answer me truly. The question cannot affect
you either way, but I must know whether you did see this Thorn leave the
cottage."

Bethel shook his head. "I know nothing whatever about any Thorn, and
I saw nobody but Dick Hare. Not but what a dozen Thorns might have run
from the cottage without my seeing them."

"You heard the shot fired?"

"Yes; but I never gave a thought to mischief. I knew Locksley was in
the wood, and supposed it came from him. I ran across the path, bearing
toward the cottage, and struck into the wood on the other side. By
and by, Dick Hare pitched upon me, like one startled out of his seven
senses, and asked if I had seen Thorn leave the cottage. Thorn--that
_was_ the name."

"And you had not?"

"I had seen nobody but Dick, excepting Locksley. My impression was, that
nobody else was about; I think so still."

"But Richard--"

"Now look you here, Carlyle, I won't do Dick Hare an injury, even by a
single word, if I can help it; and it is of no use setting me on to it."

"I should be the last to set you on to injure any one, especially
Richard Hare," rejoined Mr. Carlyle; "and my motive is to do Richard
Hare good, not harm. I hold a suspicion, no matter