"You foolish child, as though I should not have understood!"
"Well," she said with a sigh of relief, "I am glad I have told you now."
"So am I, as it has brought Joyce to the rope's end. How did he say he saw you on that night?"
"He was in the Pine Wood; on the verge of the lawn."
"And for what reason?"
"He did not tell me; nor did I ask him. You see," said Bess, "I was so angry that he should accuse me of shooting the Colonel, that I gave him no time to explain. Then you came, and--you know the rest."
"Humph! Well, Joyce shall explain to me his reasons for coming to Saxham. Of course I knew that he was here on that night."
"You knew?" said Miss Endicotte much astonished. "_How_ could you know."
"The information came to me by accident more or less," replied Herrick and forthwith he explained, how Stephen's remark as to Robin's income had led him to examine into the doings of the little man on that night. "And," continued the doctor, "I went to Heathcroft station. There I learned that a little man muffled up in a great coat (he had the excuse of the rain, but it really was a disguise) had arrived at Heathcroft by the seven o'clock train from London."
"But Heathcroft is six miles from this place."