"How should I know?" he said; "the whole affair happened in the night. There wasn't likely to be any witnesses but the young heir and the old man himself. Who knows that it wasn't a chance slip of the trigger?"
A hoarse laugh followed this speech, and the drinking-cups were set down with a dash of derision as one after another took it up.
"A chance slip of the trigger! Ha, ha, ha! Who ever heard tell of a gun going off of itself and killing two men—one at the muzzle and t'other with the stock?" exclaimed one. "Most of us here have handled a gun long enough to know better than that. Come, come, Storms, tell us summat about it, for, if any man knows, it's yoursel'."
"I," said Dick, lifting both hands in much astonishment, while his face gave sinister confirmation of the charge. "How should I know? What should bring me into that part of the park?"
"In that part of the park—as if a more likely place could be found for you. Besides, some one said that you were out that very night, and you never gave the lie to it."
"Well, and if I was, what should bring me to the cedars, lying straight in the way between 'The Rest' and Jessup's cottage? My road home lay on the other side."
This was said with a covert smile, well calculated to excite suspicion of some secret knowledge which the young man was keeping back.
"Did you order more wine, sir?"
Storms half leaped from his chair, but sat down again instantly; casting a swift glance at the barmaid, who was apparently occupied in changing some of the empty bottles for others that were full.
"Judith Hart!"