"Anything you say to me is perfectly safe," replied Herrick pleasantly. "I think Miss Bess a clever young lady."
"And as good as she is clever."
"A great friend of the late Colonel's I believe," said Jim.
Pentland Corn moistened his dry lips. "He was kind to her," was his reply delivered in a faint voice. "You will excuse my emotion Dr. Herrick but I am rather shaken by this death. Usually we are free from crime, and for this to happen in my parish! It is terrible.
"You knew Colonel Carr well?"
"Very well. I tried to win him from his evil ways. But he was cut off in the midst of his sin. Oh, it is awful. Yet I liked him. He was a good friend to me on one occasion. The reason I stopped you, was to ask if you met anyone in the house last night."
"No one. Myself and my friend hunted all over it. The servant bolted, I have been told."
"Frisco has certainly disappeared," responded Corn looking at the ground, "but I do not think he is the guilty person. He was devoted to the Colonel."
"Then why did he run away?"
"Ah! who can say! There was a mystery in Colonel Carr's life Mr. Herrick, which I fear will never be cleared up. You will be at the Inquest?"