tell you about it. Lemuel Krill and his wife kept 'The Red Pig' at
Christchurch, a little public house it is, on the outskirts of the town,
frequented by farm-laborers and such-like. The business was pretty good,
but the couple didn't look to making their fortune. Mrs. Krill was a
farmer's daughter."

"A Buckinghamshire farmer," said Paul.

"How do you know? oh!"--on receiving information--"Mrs. Krill told you
so? Well, considering the murder of Lady Rachel, she would have done
better to hold her tongue and have commenced life with her dead
husband's money under a new name. She's a clever woman, too," mused
Hurd, "I can't understand her being so unnecessarily frank."

"Never mind, go on," said Paul, impatiently.

Hurd returned to his seat and re-filled his pipe. "Well, then," he
continued, "Krill got drunk and gave his wife great trouble. Sometimes
he thrashed her and blacked her eyes, and he treated their daughter
badly too."

"How old was the daughter?"

"I can't say. Why do you ask?"

"I'll tell you later. Go on, please."

"Well, then, Mrs. Krill always revenged herself on her husband when he
was sober and timid, so the couple were evenly matched. Krill was master
when drunk, and his wife mistress when he was sober. A kind of see-saw
sort of life they must have led."

"Where does Lady Rachel come in?"

"What an impatient chap you are," remonstrated Hurd, in a friendly tone.
"I'm coming to that now. Lady Rachel quarrelled with her father over
some young artist she wanted to marry. He would not allow the lover to
come to the Hall, so Lady Rachel said she would kill herself rather than
give him up."

"And she did," said Paul, thinking of the suicide theory.

"There you go again. How am I to tell you all when you interrupt."

"I beg your pardon. I won't do so again."

Hurd nodded smilingly and continued. "One night--it was dark and
stormy--Lady Rachel had a row royal with her father. Then she ran out of
the Hall saying her father would never see her alive again. She may have
intended to commit suicide certainly, or she may have intended to join
her lover in London. But whatever she intended to do, the rain cooled
her. She staggered into Christchurch and fell down insensible at the
door of 'The Red Pig.' Mrs. Krill brought her indoors and laid her on a
bed."

"Did she know who the lady was?"

Hurd shook his head. "She said in her evidence that she did not, but
living in the neighborhood, she certainly