"Oh, do you think he will?" and the girl breathed a sigh of relief.
Then her face clouded, and that worried expression again came into her eyes.
"What will they do with Mr. Jasper?" she enquired.
"I can"t say," was the low reply.
"Will they keep him in prison a long time, or will they----?"
"Don"t say that word!" Lois cried, clutching Betty firmly by the arm.
"I know what you were going to say, and I can"t bear to hear it."
They were walking slowly now along the narrow path, bordered by waving gra.s.s. Birds sang in the trees to their left and b.u.t.terflies flitted here and there over the broad fields. It was a scene of peace and contentment. Nature was in her most attractive mood and seemed to care nothing for the cares of struggling humanity. At any other time Lois would have rejoiced in the beauty around her and would have revelled in the glory of earth and sky. But now it was otherwise. How could she be happy when her heart was so heavy? She knew the cause, and she was not ashamed to confess it to herself. In fact, it brought a slight ray of comfort to feel that she was suffering with him.
They had almost reached the house when a boy was seen approaching. He carried a note in his hand, which he gave at once to Lois.
"It"s from Mr. Forbes," he explained, "and he told me to hustle, and take an answer back as quick as I can."
Lois read the note, which simply stated that she was wanted at the telephone.
"Tell Mr. Forbes that I shall be there shortly," she told the boy, at the same time handing him a coin for his trouble in carrying the message.
Hurrying into the house in order to leave word with the maid where she was going in case any one should call, Lois started with Betty for the store. There was no more loitering now as she was anxious to learn who wanted her on the phone. It was rarely that any one called her up, and she was hoping that it might be Margaret to tell her that she was coming back that evening.
On their way they came to the grove at the top of the hill not far from the Haven. Here Betty stopped, and stood as if hesitating what to do.
"I think I shall leave you, Miss Lois," she said.
"What, are you not going with me to the store?"
"No, I guess not. I will see you later. I want to go to my room now to think something over."
She was trembling as she said this, and Lois wondered what was the matter with her. Then an idea flashed into her mind. Was she afraid to go past the artist"s tent? she asked herself. There could surely be nothing else which would cause her to leave her and go to the loneliness of her own room. She said nothing to Betty, however, of her thoughts, but bade her good-bye and hurried on her way.
Coming at length to the spot where Bramshaw had been living, she glanced to the left as if expecting to see him. But no sign of him did she see, and great was her surprise to find that his tent was gone.
She rubbed her eyes, thinking that she had not seen aright. But, no, there was no mistake. Bramshaw had gone, and had taken all his belongings with him. This was strange, and as she walked along she began to muse as to where he had gone and the purpose of his hasty departure. Had it anything to do with the murder of old David? she wondered.
Lois was thinking of these things as she reached the store, where she met Andy Forbes.
"Do you know what has become of the artist?" she enquired.
"Isn"t he up the road?" Andy asked in reply.
"His tent has been removed, and so I suppose he has gone with it."
"Gone!" he exclaimed in surprise. "Why, when did he go?"
"I haven"t the least idea."
"Well, I guess there must be something in it after all," Andy mused as if to himself.
"In what?" Lois questioned, wondering what the man meant.
"I"ll tell you in a minute, Miss Sinclair, but you"d better read this first," and the storekeeper handed her a piece of paper. "It"s the telephone message," he explained.
Lois took the paper in her hand, and read. It was from Mr. Westcote, containing a request that she should go to the city the next day if she possibly could, as he wished to see her on important business.
"Why didn"t you send this with the boy?" Lois enquired, somewhat annoyed. "It would have saved my coming here."
But Andy did not notice her annoyance, for something seemed to be troubling him.
"Would you mind coming into the house?" he asked. "My wife will look after the store for a few minutes. There is an important matter I wish to speak to you about."
Opening the door to the right, he ushered her at once into a small sitting-room. It was a cosy place, and here she found Mrs. Forbes, a bright-eyed little woman, seated at the window facing the road, doing some sewing. Lois knew her very well as one of the quiet thoughtful women, of Creekdale, and who was of such great a.s.sistance to her husband.
"It is too bad to disturb you," Lois apologised, when Andy had asked her to look after the store for a short time.
"Oh, I do not mind," she pleasantly replied. "I am so glad you have come, for I have been most anxious for Andy to have a talk with you.
Sit down, please," and she motioned to a chair.
Andy did not sit down but walked up and down the room, as was his custom when greatly excited. Presently he paused and looked keenly into Lois" expectant face.
"It"s something very serious I"ve got to tell you, Miss Sinclair," he began. "In fact, it"s so serious that I have been doubting for some time whether I should tell anybody about it. But when I told my wife this afternoon she advised me to tell you, and so that"s the reason why I asked you to come here."
"Has it anything to do with the murder case?" Lois asked, now much interested.
"Yes, I believe it will have, and that is what makes me so worried, because I don"t want to get tangled up in that nasty affair."
"Tell me what it is," Lois suggested, impatient to learn what it really was.
"Well, it has to do with that envelope."
"Oh!" Lois was more interested than ever now.
"Yes, that"s what it is about. You see, Randall came to the office one day last week, and there was a letter for him from his company. I know that much about it for their name was on the top left hand corner.
Randall opened the letter right in the store and dropped the envelope on the floor, and didn"t pay any more heed to it. I"ve seen him do the same thing several times and so I didn"t pay any special attention to it. Now, Randall hadn"t been gone very long before that artist came for his mail. There was nothing for him and he seemed very surly and said a few cuss words about people not writing. As he was standing there talking I saw him stoop and pick up the envelope Randall had dropped. He didn"t know that I saw him doing it, for I was busy with the mail though I was watching him all the time out of the corner of my eye, for I never liked the fellow. I saw him glance at me, and when he felt sure that I didn"t notice what he was doing he slipped that envelope into an inside pocket of his coat."
When Andy began his story Lois was sitting with her hands clasped before her and her eyes fixed full upon his face. But before he had finished she had risen to her feet greatly agitated.
"Are you sure that is the same letter that was found by David"s side?"
she asked in a hoa.r.s.e whisper.
"I couldn"t swear that it was," Andy slowly replied. "Anyway, it looks very much like it, and the name of the company is on the left-hand corner, just as it was on the one which Randall dropped on the floor and Bramshaw picked up."
"It must have been the same one," Lois emphatically declared. "Oh, I am so thankful that you have told me this. I am sure it will go a long way toward saving Mr. Randall."
"I can"t swear though that it"s the same envelope," Andy repeated.
"But you will be willing to swear to what you have just told me, will you not?" Lois asked.