“Well,” said Alan rising, “I shall ask Jotty, for I verily believe he is aware of much more than he chooses to say.”
“He has never told me anything,” snapped the woman; “and moreover is the most ungrateful little reptile I ever met. I gave him a good home and a new name and food and clothes and every chance of being respectable; yet he ran away, and heaven only knows where he is.”
“I can’t tell you his whereabouts now, Miss Grison, but I can tell you in what direction he went on leaving the house a few days ago.”
For the first time the landlady showed some curiosity. “Where did he go?”
“To Belstone with a copy of your interview in his pocket to warn Sorley that——”
He got no further, for Miss Grison jumped up with her hard blue eyes flashing with rage. “The traitor,” she said in an ominously calm voice. “After all I did for him, he tried to save Sorley, did he?”
“For money?”
“Of course. The boy is a born miser. Well, if he returns here, I shall know how to punish him. Never mind how; don’t ask; I may box his ears, or I may have him put in jail for theft.”
“But since you have given him a chance of being respectable why ruin him?”
“Because he has sided with my enemy.”