"No, you did not, but who inserted the lines claimed by another person in the manuscript submitted? Were you in the cottage the other night? Some one was, for my servant heard some one prowling about, and a little later there was some sort of fracas outside. How did Manners receive his black eye? Can you tell me that?"
"He got to wandering in his sleep and fell over a tent rope, I understand. That might give him a black eye."
"Didn't he seize you by the leg and shout that he had got you, and that you must give an account of yourself?" the doctor asked. "My servant heard some one say this."
"I was in my tent all night when Manners got his black eye," said Herring, who did not fancy having this evidence brought suddenly before him.
"With a light burning?" asked the doctor. "One of the guards saw a light at occasions shining from your tent. What were you doing with it?"
"Could it not have been Merritt?" asked Herring. "I do not occupy the tent alone."
"You were writing in those lines, were you not? Did you observe that the first page had more on it than the others? I suppose it would have taken too long to copy the entire poem, insertion and all?"
"I don't know anything about it," snarled Herring. "What evidence have you that I did these things that you charge me with doing?"
"I have not charged you with them, Herring. I am merely asking you a few questions. I have circumstantial evidence, however, that you did these things."
"Circumstantial evidence has hanged innocent men before now," said the bully. "Haven't you any corroborative evidence?"