tale imparted to him by Richard, as well
as other points, had colored them with his own deductions, and spoke
accordingly. Afy was taken in.

"He had left his hat there--nothing else. It was a warm evening, and he
had gone out without it."

"He told you, I believe, sufficient to convince you of the guilt of
Richard Hare?" Another shaft thrown at random.

"I did not want convincing--I knew it without. Everybody else knew it."

"To be sure," equably returned Lawyer Ball. "Did Captain Thorn _see_ it
done--did he tell you that?"

"He had got his hat, and was away down the wood some little distance,
when he heard voices in dispute in the cottage, and recognized one of
them to be that of my father. The shot followed close upon it, and
he guessed some mischief had been done, though he did not suspect its
extent."

"Thorn told you this--when?"

"The same night--much later."

"How came you to see him?"

Afy hesitated; but she was sternly told to answer the question.

"A boy came up to the cottage and called me out, and said a strange
gentleman wanted to see me in the wood, and had given him sixpence
to come for me. I went, and found Captain Thorn. He asked me what the
commotion was about, and I told him Richard Hare had killed my father.
He said, that now I spoke of him, he could recognize Richard Hare's as
having been the other voice in the dispute."

"What boy was that--the one who came for you?"

"It was Mother Whiteman's little son."

"And Captain Thorn then gave you this version of the tragedy?"

"It was the right version," resentfully spoke Afy.

"How do you know that?"

"Oh! because I'm sure it was. Who else would kill him but Richard Hare?
It is a scandalous shame, your wanting to put it upon Thorn!"

"Look at the prisoner, Sir Francis Levison. Is it he whom you knew as
Thorn?"

"Yes; but that does not make him guilty of the murder."

"Of course it does not," complacently assented Lawyer Ball. "How long
did you remain with Captain Thorn in London--upon that little visit, you
know?"

Afy started like anybody moonstruck.

"When you quitted this place, after the tragedy, it was to join Captain
Thorn in London. How long, I ask, did you remain with him?"

Entirely a random shaft, this. But Richard had totally denied to Lawyer
Ball the popular assumption that Afy had been with him.

"Who says I was with him? Who says I went after him?" flashed Afy, with
scarlet cheeks.

"I do," replied Lawyer B