"I say, Dickey, have you heard anything of Lancaster?"

"No, poor chap. He's cleared out. I daresay he's in America. In fact, I know a fellow who thought he saw him in Liverpool."

"No doubt," replied Eustace, thinking it was best to encourage this idea and put Berry on a wrong trail. "The most sensible thing he could do was to cut."

"But I say, Jarman, you don't believe that he's guilty?"

"Don't you?" asked Eustace, alertly.

"No. Or if I do," added Dickey, rather inconsequently, "it was an accident. I'll never believe that a good chap like Lancaster killed another in so brutal a way."

"What do you mean by an accident?"

"Well, you see, Frank rather admired Starth's sister--"

"Ha!" said Eustace with a start. "I remember, she was in a box."

"Rather looking the beauty of the world. Ripping girl, just the sort of Diana of the Chase I'd like to marry."