"What reason did he give?"
"Said his health was bad. I tried to see him and he refused. I couldn't find out his address for a long time, as he wrote from his London house. Finally I got it from Craver--Edwin, I mean--and came down the other night to force Wyke to explain his dashed impudence. While he was explaining the ring came at the door and he bolted. The rest you know. Well?"
"Well," echoed Purse, vaguely and rather distraught. He did not know very well what to say, as this new complication took him by surprise. Edwin Craver loved the girl, Edwin Craver was the son of the Rector in whose parish the crime had been committed. "Could it be that Edwin Craver----"
"No," said Lemby, reading suspicion in the sergeant's eyes. "Edwin is innocent. I'll swear. In my opinion it was----" He hesitated, faltered and broke down, while Purse waited for him to complete the sentence.
[CHAPTER V.]
Lemby had some difficulty in speaking freely, and hesitated so pointedly that Purse impatiently assisted him. "Are you going to tell me who is the criminal?"
"No," said Lemby, promptly, and now speaking readily enough. "I was about to say that I believe it was a case of suicide."
The sergeant expressed his surprise. "Suicide, when Mrs. Vence saw the assassin bending over his victim? Ridiculous!"
"It may be ridiculous, or it may not be," replied the buccaneer, doggedly; "but from what I know of Wyke, he was in no danger from anyone. Who the man is that Mrs. Vence saw I don't know. But Wyke might have killed himself and the man might have been bending over his body to afford succour."
"Ridiculous," replied the sergeant. "If the strange man was innocent he would scarcely have fled. His flight on the bicycle proves his guilt. Besides, what reason had Wyke to commit suicide?"