“It may have been.”
“Answer the learned counsel properly, sir,” blazed forth the judge. “You are an impertinent fellow, to come here and play the fool in Court. Just be careful what you are about.”
“I mean it was,” answered Johnston, overawed.
“Quite so. In a word, you suspected that there had been foul play, and that your master was at the bottom of it?”
“Yes.”
“Only a suspicion, of course?”
“Yes.”
“Now, what gave rise to that suspicion?”
“Well, it seemed strange that Mr Roland should be down at Battisford in disguise just at the time Mr Hubert disappeared.”
“Ah! How long were you in the service of the accused?”