"You drunken beast," she said, advancing with brandished arms, "how dare you insult my young lady?"
"She killed her father," grumbled Armour, but under his breath, as the stern looks of Herries and the presence of his wife cowed him not a little.
Mrs. Armour uttered an indignant exclamation and placing her hand on his coat-collar dragged him to the door.
"It is quite false, you fool."
"He says that you told him," said Herries to the wife.
Mrs. Armour pushed her husband outside and faced round.
"I told him nothing of the sort. He found out, I don't know how, that my young lady was at my house on the night of the murder, and taxed me with it. I confessed--like a fool,--that she had been there, and then he got it into his head that she set those sailors after him, to get him kidnapped. He thinks that he lost his position in the Force through her, which is quite wrong."
"Why didn't you come to the inquest and say that Miss Tedder was with you on the night?" asked Herries sternly.
"Because she asked me not to. I wouldn't have said a word even to Armour, but that he found out. Who are you, sir?"
"I am Miss Tedder's cousin----"