"Mr. Lovel told me. Do you think I would know if he had not?--or that I would be aware that he paid you five pounds to hold your tongue?"
Brent, whose brain worked slowly, fell into the trap at once. Unless Lovel had spoken, as Mexton declared, he did not think Paul could have come by such exact information; the more particularly as the precise amount of the bribe was mentioned. It never occurred to Brent at the moment that Jane had innocently betrayed him.
"Well, I've earned the money all right, ain't I?" he growled.
"Indeed you have done no such thing!" replied Mexton. "You have been talking about the meeting."
"I swear I ain't!" cried Brent, bringing down his huge fist on the table. "I cud 'ave talked about it when they sat on the corpse; but I didn't. I stayed here and shut up. I never told a single soul as I seed Mr. Lovel and Miss Milly walking in the Winding Lane on that night."
This was quite enough. Herne had been right and Lovel had met Milly by appointment on the fatal night. Therefore the alibi proved by Mother Jimboy was a deception to defeat the ends of justice; and Lovel was in league with the gipsy. Paul began to believe that he might have killed Milly after all; but he resolved to question Brent further before coming to so important a conclusion.
"Well, I daresay Mr. Lovel was mistaken," said Paul, genially; "it would be dangerous for him were it known that he met Miss Lester on that night."
"I don't see it!" growled Brent.
"I do; and so does Mr. Lovel; that is why he asked me to see if you had kept silence. If it was known that Mr. Lovel was in the Winding Lane on that night, he might be accused of the murder."
"Let 'em accuse!" said Brent, grimly, "they can't prove he killed the gal. And I knows he didn't, else I'd not held my tongue. If he was a murderer, I'd get him hanged for all his five pounds!"