“If only we can prove that he had no hand in it,” said Matthew. “But there, ’tis vain to hope so—look which way you will. If he was innocent, why for did he run?”
“Innocent men have done so for nought but terror,” she answered.
“Maybe; but not Daniel. He was never afeared. No—no; he’s gone with blood on his hands. ’Twill never be known till Judgment Day. Then the record will be cried from the Book.”
“Why for shouldn’t us believe him?” she asked. “He never told me a lie in his life. Can you call home that you ever catched him in one?”
But the father refused to argue.
“He may have throwed himself down Wall Shaft Gully for all he told you he would not. And no man would have taken on that dreadful death if he wasn’t in fear of a dreadfuller. However, you can come to the place an’ welcome. I’ll show you where one rogue got me down an’ nearly hammered the life out of me; an’ I’ll show you where the other man let moonlight into poor Thorpe. The detectives have tramped every yard of the ground, but they found nothing good or bad. The man or woman as can prove my son innocent will have my blessing, I promise you, though too well I know he’s guilty. I’ve heard him threaten Thorpe myself.”
In process of time, therefore, Minnie visited the coverts of Middlecott Court and traversed the exact ground where Daniel was supposed to have destroyed Adam Thorpe. Many other more highly trained observers had done the like; but public interest in the affair perished with Sweetland’s supposed suicide; and even the police when the events of Furnum Regis and Wall Shaft Gully came to their ears, pursued their operations at Middlecott Lower Hundred and elsewhere with less ardour. Their labours threw no light upon the past; nor could they find Daniel’s accomplice. Mr Sweetland swore to a second poacher; for one man fought with him and broke his finger, while the other fired on Thorpe; but both rascals had worn masks, and no trace of either appeared after the affray, excepting only the gun—Henry Vivian’s gift to Daniel.
Proceedings presently terminated tamely enough, and it was not until a fortnight after the last detective had left Middlecott that Minnie with her father-in-law visited the theatre of Thorpe’s death.
But they took a detour, for Sweetland had fresh troubles upon his hands.