“I missed you when I woke up, and wondered where you were. I looked out of the window of my bedroom and saw a woman coming up the avenue with a man. As they came nearer I saw that it was Miss Grison and Moon.”
“I’m lost, I’m lost,” shouted Sorley scrambling to his feet; “let me hide, oh let me hide,” and he rushed to the door.
“Ain’t no go, mister,” yelled the malignant Jotty, nibbling at his biscuit, “fur I knows yer hole an’ I’ll sell y’ fur a sneak.”
But in spite of this assertion, Sorley, in a fever of terror would have fled, but that Alan caught him by the arm. “Stay here and face things like a man,” he said sternly. “Dick run out and ask Moon and Miss Grison to come here. Then dash down to The Red Fox and bring Bakche to prove the poor devil’s innocence.”
“What—what—what,” gurgled Sorley, as Dick lost no time in obeying, and sprang out of the French window which Alan had opened. “Can he——”
“I think so; I am not sure,” said Fuller sharply. “However you shall stay here and face the best or the worst.”
“Louisa will hang me,” murmured Sorley, sinking into a chair and covering his face with two grimy hands. Jotty grinned, and did not seem disturbed at the announcement that Bakche would prove his captor’s innocence, which made Alan think that the brat could not be so guilty as the Indian had hinted.
Feeling weary with his long watching and the late exciting events, the young man went to the window to inhale deep breaths of the keen morning air. The sun was now rising, and the eastern sky was radiant with golden floods of light, while the chill atmosphere felt perceptibly warmer. Trees and lawns and beds of early flowers presented themselves with photographic distinctness in the crystalline clearness of the dawning, and there was a feeling of freshness, as if all old things were being made new by the magical workings of nature. But Fuller had small time to gratify his jaded senses with this cool beauty, for crossing the lawn were Inspector Moon and Miss Grison. Dick had just delivered his message and had left them to dash down the avenue to Belstone, while the woman and the officer advanced towards the open window, as they had been directed. Alan stepped down to meet them, quite satisfied that the vindictive Jotty would keep a close watch on the miserable old man. The tables were now turned with a vengeance.
“How are you, Miss Grison? and you, Mr. Inspector?” said Alan quietly. “I heard that the lady was here, but you sir?——”
“I brought him,” said Miss Grison triumphantly, and looking wooden and washed out and as hard as ever. “I wired for him last night, for I was certain that Sorley would come back to The Monastery.”