"He never took that money from Mr. Rodriguez?"
"No," said I; "it was given him last night by Mr. Whitmore in Miss Belcher"s shrubbery."
"He is not guilty of this murder?"
"No," said I again, "I think not: indeed, I am sure he is not."
I glanced at Archibald Plinlimmon who had been standing with eyes downcast and gloomy, studying the dim pattern of the carpet at his feet. He looked up now: his face had grown resolute.
"No," he echoed in a strained voice; "he had nothing to do with the murder."
"Why, what on earth do _you_ know?" cried Mr. Rogers, and Isabel, too, bent back on her knees and gazed on him amazedly.
"I was there."
"_Where_, in Heaven"s name?"
"On the roof outside the garret. I looked in and saw the body lying."
"You were on the roof--you looked in and saw the body--" Mr. Rogers repeated the words stupidly, automatically, searching for speech of his own. "Man alive, how came you on the roof? What were you doing there?"
"We were billeted three doors away," said Archibald, and paused.
"I can tell you no more just now."
""We"?"
"That man and I." He pointed at Leicester.
"And you looked in. What else did you see?" Mr. Rogers"s voice was sharp.
"That I cannot tell you."
"The murderer?"
"No: not the murderer," he answered slowly.
"Then what? Whom?"
"I have said that I cannot tell you."
"But he can, sir!" I cried recklessly. "He saw _me_! I had just found the body and was standing beside it when he looked in."
I stopped, panting. It seemed as if all the breath in me had escaped for the moment with my confession.
Mr. Rogers turned from me to Archibald. "I think I see. You supposed the boy to be guilty, and helped him to get away."
"No," answered Archibald, "I did not think him guilty. I did not know what to think. And it was he who helped me to get away."
"Why should he help you to get away?"
"I will tell that--but not to you. I will tell it to my wife."
Isabel had risen from her knees. She went to him and would have taken his hand. "Not yet," he said hoa.r.s.ely, and turned from her.
Mr. Rogers eyed the Rector in despair. But the Rector merely shook his head.
"But confound it all! Where"s the murderer, in all this?"
"Sakes alive! Isn"t that as clear as daylight?" interjected Miss Belcher. "Didn"t I let him out of the window more than an hour ago?
And isn"t Hodgson foundering my mare at this moment in chase of him?
See here, Jack," she went on judicially, "you"ve played one or two neat strokes to-night: but one or two neat strokes don"t make a professional. You"ll have to give up this justicing. You"ve no head for it."
"Indeed?" retorted Mr. Rogers. "Then since it seems you see deeper into this business than most of us, perhaps you"ll favour us with your advice."
"With all the pleasure in life, my son," said the lady. "I can see holes in a ladder: but I don"t look deep into a brick wall, for the reason that I don"t try. There"s some secret between Mr. Plinlimmon and this boy. What it is I don"t know, and you don"t know: and I"ve yet to discover that "tis any business of ours. All I care to hear about it is that Mr. Plinlimmon means to tell his wife, for which I commend him. Now you don"t propose to make out a warrant against _him_, I take it? As for the boy, he"s done us more services to-night than we can count on our fingers. He"s saved more than one, and more than two, of us here, let alone five couples married by Whitmore in the four months he was curate. Reckon them in, please, and their children to come. Ah, my dear," she laid a hand on Isabel"s shoulder. "I know what I"m speaking of! He has ended a scandal for the Rector, and in time for the mischief to be repaired.
He has even saved that dirty scoundrel there, if it helps a man on Judgment Day that his villainies have miscarried. Well then, what about the boy? There"s a hue-and-cry after him; but you can"t give him up. Let alone the manner of your meeting him--that business of the bonfire--and a pretty tale "twould make against a Justice of the Peace--"
"I never gave that a thought, Lydia," Mr. Rogers protested.
"I know you didn"t, my lad: that"s why I mentioned it. Well, letting that alone, how are you to give the child up? You can"t. You know you can"t. We"ve to hide him now, though it cost your commission.
Eh? to be sure we must. Give him up? Pretty grat.i.tude indeed, and what next, I wonder!"
"I never thought of giving him up."
"I know you didn"t, again: but I"m combing out your brains for you, if you"ll only stand quiet and not interrupt. Keep your mind fixed on Whitmore. Whitmore"s your man. If Hodgson catches him--"
"If Hodgson catches him, he"ll be charged with the murder. I"ve the warrant in my pocket. Then how are we to hide the boy, or keep any silence on what has happened here to-night?"
"Ye dunderhead!" Miss Belcher stamped her foot. "What in the name of fortune have we to do with the murder? If Hodgson catches him, he"ll be charged with forging the Bishop of Exeter"s licence: that"s to say with a crime he"s already confessed to you. If you want to hang him, that"ll do it. You don"t want to hang him twice over, do you? And I don"t reckon he"ll be so anxious to be hanged twice that he"ll confess to a murder for the fun of the thing. If you say nothing, he"ll say nothing. Upon my word you seem to have that Jew on the brain! Who made out the warrant?"
"I, of course."
"Then keep it in your pocket: and when you get home, burn it.
It beats me to think why you can"t let that murder alone. Rodriguez was no friend of yours, was he? You can"t bring him to life again, can you? And what"s your evidence? A couple of marked coins?
Barring us few here, who knows of them? n.o.body. Barring us few here, who knows a whisper beside, to connect Whitmore with the murder? n.o.body again. Very well, then: you came here to-night to expose Whitmore as a false priest and a forger. You took the villain on the hop, and he confessed: so the boy"s evidence is not needed.
Having confessed, he made his escape. You can say, if you will, that I helped him. That"s all you need remember, and what more d"ye want?
It"s odds against Hodgson catching him. It"s all Lombard Street to a china orange against his bothering you, if caught, with any plea but Guilty." She ceased, panting with her flow of words.
"Well, but about this Leicester?" Mr. Rogers objected.
"What about him? Let him go. Isabel was right in begging him off-- though you did it, my dear, for other reasons than mine: but when the heart"s right, G.o.d bless you, it usually speaks common sense.
Let him go. D"ye want to hang him? He"s ugly enough, but I don"t see how you"re to do it, unless first of all you catch Whitmore and then force him to turn cat-in-the-pan, at the risk of his talking too much and with the certainty of dragging Isabel into the exposure.
Even so, I doubt you"ll get evidence. This man is a deal too shrewd to have done any of the forging himself. If Whitmore had known enough to hang him, Whitmore wouldn"t have gone in awe of him.
And what Whitmore don"t know, Whitmore can"t tell."
All this while the prisoner had kept absolute silence; had stood motionless, except that his eyes turned from one speaker to another, and now and then seemed to seek Archibald Plinlimmon"s--who, however, refused to return the look. But now he twisted his battered mouth into something like an appreciative grin.
"Bravo, Madam!" said he. "You"ve the wits of the company, if you"ll take my compliments."
"I mis...o...b.. they"re interested ones," she answered drily, and so addressed herself again to Mr. Rogers. "Let the man go: you"ve drawn his sting. If ever he opens his mouth on to-night"s work, we"ve a plum or two to pop into it. If Mr. Plinlimmon chooses to take him at the door and horsewhip him, I say nothing against it. Indeed he"s welcome to the loan of my hunting-crop."