"A farmer's daughter," I answered. "It seems that I paid her too much or too little, attention, I am not sure which. At any rate, she has an imaginary grievance against me, and this is the result."
"She tells the truth?"
"I have not heard her story," I answered, "but it is true that I encouraged her to suppress the fact that she bad seen the man in the village, and that he had asked for me."
"What folly!"
"Perhaps," I answered. "You see, I thought that a verdict of 'found drowned' would save trouble."
"This accursed woman at the Grange is in it, I know," Ray remarked, slowly filling his pipe. "I wonder if she knew that I was about? That would give her a zest for the job."
"She knows that you were at Braster at the time," I said. "It was the night of your lecture."
Ray began to blow out dense clouds of smoke.
"We're safe," he said thoughtfully, "both of us. There's just a link in the chain missing."
"The police have been here with a warrant in search of that link," I remarked.