I killed your father or not
makes no difference; he was killed, that is the principal point; if I
was going to be put on my trial for that I could prove that at eight
o'clock I was in a coffee house in Covent Garden. I purposely kicked
up a row there, and was turned out, so that if I were charged with that
shooting affair I could prove that I was in London that evening."

"I can't quite believe that," Mark said; "a fast horse would have
brought you up to town in an hour and a half, and another fast horse
would have taken you back again as quickly; so you might have been in
London at eight and back again at Crowswood by half past twelve or one,
even if you stopped a couple of hours at a coffee house. However, you
won't be tried for that. Those things on the table and the contents of
that corn bin are enough to hang you a dozen times."

"Curse you! have you found that out?" Bastow exclaimed furiously.

"We have," Mark replied. "It would have been wiser if you had got rid
of your things sooner. It was a clever hiding place, but it is always
dangerous to keep such things by you, Bastow."

The man said no more, but sat quietly in his chair until they heard
the vehicle stop outside the gate. Then the two constables came in,
and lifting Bastow, carried him out and placed him in the bottom of the
cart.

"You can loose the old woman now, Malcolm," Mark said as he took his
seat and gathered the reins in his hand. "By eleven o'clock, no doubt,
one of the others will be down with the gig again, and you can empty
out the contents of that hole, and bring them up with you. I don't think
that it will be of any use searching further. You might have a good look
all round before you come away. There may be some notes stowed away,
though it is likely enough that they have been sent away by post to some
receiver abroad."

For some time after starting they could hear the prisoner moving about
uneasily in the straw.

"I suppose there is no fear of his slipping out of those handcuffs,
Chester?"

"Not a bit; they are full tight for him. I expect that that is what is
making him uncomfortable."

Presently the movement ceased.

"He is still enough now, Mr. Thorndyke. I should not be at all surprised
if he has dropped off to sleep. He is hardened enough to sleep while the
gibbet was waiting for him."

It was four o'clock in the morning when they drove up at Bow Street. Two
constables on duty came out to the cart.

"We have got a pr