“Then she couldn’t have gone far.”

“Oh, well, she could walk to the railway station. It’s only a fairish tramp. But why did she go?”

“I ask you why.”

“And I don’t know. But I suppose it was because she didn’t want to be questioned about the man who shot.”

“What! You didn’t say she saw him shoot!”

“Yes, I did. Or I meant to. Anyway that’s what Rachel said. The man with the bugle shot through the window and that’s what killed Mr. Appleby.”

“Oh, come now, this is too big a yarn to be true, especially when the yarner lights out at once after telling it!”

“Well, Rachel has her faults, but I never knew her to lie. And if it was the man I saw—why, that proves, at least, there was a man there.”

“But you didn’t see him clearly.”

“But I saw him.”