"I daresn"t" confessed Johnny miserably.
"Do you suppose he"s dead?"
"They"ll probably put us in jail."
"Come on," said Bobby at last.
They arose, very giddy and uncertain on their feet. For the first time they forced themselves to look at the copse lying below them.
"Oh!" breathed Johnny, "Look!"
Below them on the farther edge of the copse, and over a quarter of a mile away, they saw Mr. Kincaid. He was bareheaded. Curly was with him.
The man was trying to send the water spaniel into the copse. Curly pretended that he wanted to play, and did not in the least understand what it was all about. He capered joyously around Mr. Kincaid"s outstretched arm; he pressed his chest to the earth and uttered short barks; he chased madly around in circles, but he did not enter the copse, which was plainly his master"s desire. Finally Mr. Kincaid gave it up and departed over the brow of the next hill.
And while this little by-play was going on two small boys above him felt the warmth of life flowing back into their frozen souls. The blood returned to their lips, their thumping hearts calmed, all the blessed joy and sunshine and freedom of the world flooded in a return tide of blessed relief.
"Gee," said Johnny, "I"m never going hunting again! Never any more!
Never!"
"You bet I"m going to be careful after this," said Bobby. "My, but I"m glad!"
"I wonder why he didn"t pick up his cap?" wondered Johnny.
"Perhaps he had it in his hand."
The boys drove home ringing the changes on a thousand new resolutions of caution.
"It"s a good lesson to us," said Bobby by way of reminiscent philosophy often heard before.
They put Bobby Junior into the barn, cleaned the Flobert, changed their hunting clothes, and answered with alacrity the summons to the dining room. After they were well started with the meal, Mr. Orde came in and sat down. He nodded abstractedly, and had little to say. The boys were too far down in remorse to care to bring up any of the subjects near their hearts. Finally Mrs. Orde remarked this general depression.
"I must say you"re a cheerful lot of men folks," said she. "What is it?
Business?" She smiled at the boys in raillery at the idea. But she could not cheer them up. As soon as the meal was over Mr. Orde dismissed the boys.
"Run along now," said he briefly; "I want to talk."
They climbed the stairs to Bobby"s room, and sat down glumly on the floor. Reaction was strong, and they had both fallen into aimless doldrums of spirit. Suddenly Bobby sat up straight at attention.
The Orde house was provided with old-fashioned hot-air registers. When the registers happened all to be open, they const.i.tuted most excellent speaking-tubes. Thus, without intention of deliberate eavesdropping, Bobby and his friend became aware of the following conversation.
"What"s the matter, Jack? Anything wrong at the office or on the River?"
Mr. Orde sighed deeply.
"Oh, no. Everything"s snug as a bug in a rug, sweetheart," said he. "But I"m bothered a lot. A dreadful thing happened to-day. You know that popple thicket out at Pritchard"s place?"
Both boys froze into horrified attention.
"Yes."
"Well, just before dusk Pritchard was found dead near the east end of it."
"Why, how did that happen?" cried Mrs. Ode.
The boys stole a look at each other.
"He had been murdered."
"Murdered!" cried Mrs. Orde sharply.
"Oh!" moaned Bobby in a smothered voice.
"Yes. He was found with a knife wound in his throat."
"How terrible!" said Mrs. Orde.
"But that isn"t what worries me. Pritchard is no irreparable loss."
"Jack!" cried Mrs. Orde.
"He isn"t," insisted Orde stoutly. "But Kincaid was seen by several competent witnesses coming out from that thicket, and as far as anybody has been able to find out he is the only human being who was out there to-day. They have him under arrest."
"I never heard of anything so ridiculous!" cried Mrs. Orde indignantly.
"There has been bad blood between them," said Orde; "and everybody knows it. That"s the trouble. Pritchard, as usual, has off and on done an awful lot of talking."
"You don"t for a moment believe----"
"Certainly not. Arthur Kincaid never would harm a fly in anger. And I rely absolutely on his word."
"You"ve seen him?"
"Of course. He acknowledges he was out at Pritchard"s, but denies all knowledge of the affair. That"s the trouble. He offers no explanation of the facts, and the facts are--queer."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, this; the men who saw Kincaid coming out of the thicket say he was bareheaded. When Pritchard"s body was found, Kincaid"s cap was discovered about fifty feet distant."
"What does he say to that?"
"His story is so ridiculous that I wouldn"t blame anybody who did not know Kincaid for not believing it. He says he was playing with his dog Curly, when Curly grabbed the cap and made off with it. The dog came back without the cap, and Kincaid could not find it. That"s all he says, except that he was not in the thicket at all, and certainly not within a quarter-mile of the scene of the murder."
"That might be so."
"Of course it"s so, if Arthur Kincaid says it is," insisted Orde, "but what do you think of this? The cap had a 22-calibre bullet hole through the crown; and Pritchard was armed with a 22-calibre rifle."
"What does Mr. Kincaid say to it?"
"That"s just the trouble," cried Orde in despairing tones. "If he"d plead self-defence any jury in Michigan would acquit him without leaving the box. But when we asked him how that bullet hole got in that cap, he simply says that he doesn"t know; it wasn"t there when he lost the cap!