"Can you explain how you do know?" asked the doctor roughly.
This time it was the boy who was puzzled, "I can't," he said. "I feel that Petronella will die. I can say no more than that."
Herrick groaned. It was useless to try and understand this extraordinary lad. Evidently he did not understand himself. Yet his former prophecies had come to pass so absolutely, that Dr. Jim could not help thinking that this last would come true also. However, this was not the business about which he had come. "Sidney," he said after a pause, "do you know that Frisco, who used to be with Colonel Carr, has been arrested?"
"I heard Bess say so."
"What do you think of it?"
"I never thought of it at all. He is in no danger, Dr. Jim. It was not Frisco who killed Colonel Carr."
"How do you know that?" asked Herrick startled. Was the boy about to confess that he was guilty.
"I was in the house just after Colonel Carr was killed."
"Oh! Then you did not shoot him yourself?" Sidney frowned, but appeared very little disturbed.
"Why should I have killed him?" he said calmly. "Colonel Carr was a wicked man. I told him he would die by violence some day. But he only laughed at me. He thought I was mad or a fool. You do also, Dr. Jim."