"The devil!" said Dr. Jim, and well he might. There was a paragraph in the paper to the effect that the man called Frisco who was wanted for the murder of Colonel Carr of Saxham, had been captured on the preceding day. No further details were given, but what Herrick read was quite sufficient. He dropped the paper and stared at Stephen.
"Shall we need go up to Town now?" asked the Squire.
"Yes! We must catch this train. Here comes the cart; I shall go and see Joyce at his flat. He may know what this means."
"What about Bess?" asked Stephen.
"We have no time to talk over the matter with her now. She will see the news in the 'Telegraph.' We can send her a wire from Beorminster station, not to worry herself. Jump in Steve."
In a few minutes they were driving hard for the cathedral city. At the station Herrick sent the proposed wire to Biffstead, and they caught the express. "We shall be in town for a few days over this," said Herrick when they were comfortably settled, "I think I can see."
"See what?" asked Marsh-Carr. "What it means. This is the revenge of that blackguard Santiago for losing the money."
"Do you think he put in the cipher?"
"I am sure he did, and gave information to the police meantime. No doubt when Frisco arrived at the rendezvous thinking to meet his son he was arrested by officers in plain clothes. I have not much sympathy for Frisco, who, I fear, is a bad lot. All the same it is hard that he should be tripped up in his stride by that brute of a Greaser."
"It might be so. I wonder if Don Manuel has stayed to see the matter out. It is the kind of thing he would like to do."