Even then, before going home, he stopped at the rectory and had half an hour’s interview with the Rev. Mr. Cave, in which he told the latter of all the news he had received and all the discoveries he had made concerning the fate of Lilith, during the day. He ended by asking the rector to go with him to the Stag to see and question Carter.
Mr. Cave put on his hat and walked with Dr. Kerr the short distance that lay between the rectory and the hotel.
They found Carter smoking in the little reading-room. He willingly accompanied the gentlemen to the parlor, at their request, and closeted there, he readily answered every question put to him, but, after all, they elicited nothing more than had been told to the doctor that morning.
At the end of the interview they thanked Carter and took leave of him.
“And, after all,” sighed Mr. Cave, “the verdict of the coroner’s jury was right.”
“Yes,” assented the doctor, “it was right! And now I do not think we have far to look for the dastardly murderer of Lilith Hereward.”
“Whom do you suspect?” inquired the rector, in a low, awe-stricken voice.
“The ruffian husband of the gypsy girl who was on the creek the same night of her death.”
CHAPTER IV
A STARTLING VISIT
Early next morning Mr. Cave, in accordance with the request of Dr. Kerr, went to the Cliffs to spend the day with Tudor Hereward. He found the young man too ill to leave his room, seated in a reclining-chair near the open window.