"That's an absurd suggestion," he said. "How could she be?"
"I'll tell you how she could be," said the colonel; "she has never been with us when Jack made his appearance—you'll grant that?"
Crewe thought for a moment.
"There you're wrong," he said; "she was with us the night Jack first came."
The colonel was taken aback. A theory which he had formed was destroyed by that recollection.
"So she was. That's right, she was there! I remember he insulted her. But I'm certain she's seen him since; I am certain she's been working hand-in-glove with him since. Who was the Jack who went to Yorkshire?"
It was Crewe's turn to be nonplussed.
"Jack o' Judgment must be working with a pal," the colonel went on triumphantly, "and I suggest that that pal is Lollie Marsh."
"That's a lie!"