Tod grunted, and kicked the carpet. "When you are married, what do you intend to do?"
"I shall bring my wife down here within three days, and we shall all go over to the Pixy's House. Mrs. Crosbie will not have left by that time, as, from the quantity of luggage she brought, I fancy she intends to remain for a week or so. Then we can confront her and Rebb, and, if possible, Tod, I wish you to bring Geary on the scene. Thus all the actors in this tragedy of real life--as Mrs. Pelham Odin would call it--will be together, and we can bring about the fall of the curtain."
"With Mrs. Gerald Haskins in gaol," said Arnold gloomily. "Mavis will be arrested on Rebb's information, at once."
"That is highly probable. But whether Mavis appears early or late she will have to stand her trial, seeing that she is accused. Also she will have to be examined as to her sanity. But in both these ordeals, I intend to be beside her as her husband." There was a pause. "Well?"
"It's a forlorn hope," said Macandrew, hesitating, "and risky. Still----" He looked questioningly at Arnold.
The little man nodded sadly. "Things are so bad that they can scarcely be worse," he remarked, "and certainly, as Mr. Haskins thinks, a public trial would force the witnesses we want into court. Once in the box, and closely examined, the truth might come to light. I think Mr. Haskins should do as he says, but--it is a risk."
"Life is all risks," said Gerald cheerfully. "Well, I am going to pack up and clear off to London. And you, Toddy?"
"I shall keep my eye on Geary, and, if possible, I shall see Mrs. Crosbie, or her mother."
Gerald nodded, and, matters thus being arranged, he went up to London that same afternoon, en route for Southend, there to make Mavis his wife. Tod and Arnold, left behind, remained at the Prince's Hotel, and wandered about the country, even as far as Leegarth. They heard that the London ladies were still with the Major, but did not catch a glimpse of them. And even Tod, audacious as he was, shrank from going to the Pixy's House and openly accusing the lively widow.
Tod took occasion to pay a special visit to the Devon Maid, and found the hotel in charge of a rough man and his slatternly wife. It appeared that since Mrs. Geary's disappearance her husband had taken heavily to drink, and refused to attend to his business. His uncivilized instincts had got the better of him, and he was running wild in the neighborhood. Mrs. Geary, now with her mother in Barnstaple, refused to return to him, or to surrender her children, and Adonis talked loudly of forcing her stubborn will by law. But, as yet, he had not done anything, perhaps because he was in danger of the law himself. Tod learned as much from Inspector Morgan, whom he met in the Silbury High Street on the third day after Gerald's departure in search of a wife.