"Very good. I would have spoken to him myself, but your influence over him is stronger than mine."
Santiago shrugged his shoulders. "You ascribe to me more power than I possess," said he, "I do not wish to obtain influence over any one. To me Joyce is a pleasant friend, nothing more. When I go back to London probably I shall see little of him. And I return to Mexico in two months."
Herrick was pleased to hear this. If there was any conspiracy, and Don Manuel was mixed up in it, the thing would at all events come to a head within eight weeks. It was time it did, for Herrick was weary of fighting with shadows. Once he had something definite before him he could fight; and a vague threat in the Mexican's tone assured him that he would not have long to wait.
As he had no excuse for leaving Don Manuel the doctor was forced to return to the village with him. On the way they passed Sidney, who was walking towards the moor. Herrick called to the boy, who merely waved his hand and passed on. Jim noticed that his face was singularly colourless, of a hue resembling that which it had assumed when he had slept on the library sofa prior to his announcement of Mrs. Marsh's death.
"How ill that boy looks!" muttered Herrick.
"Pardon me," interposed Manuel, "he is not ill. But he is in that frame of mind which will bring him into contact with spiritual intelligences."
"How do you know?"
"By his rapt look and his fixed eye. That boy Dr. Herrick, is clairvoyant."
Herrick was angry at once. "You are talking the jargon of the spiritualists," he said roughly, "all trickery and fraud."
"Believe me nothing of the sort Señor. I myself have seen the most extraordinary things."