"True enough," replied Larcher, nodding. "And there is another reason. I have just learned that my wife is still alive, and is protected by Hilliston at Hampstead. I sent Claude out of the room so that I could ask you a plain question. Give me a plain answer, and tell me what are the relations between them."
"I don't care to answer that plainly," said Tait, with some hesitation; "but I think you can guess."
"Does Hilliston love my wife?"
"On the authority of Miss Belinda Pike, whom I saw at Horriston, I believe he does."
"And for her sake he had deceived me all these years?"
"It seems so. In fact, Captain Larcher, Hilliston has been playing a double game. He kept you and your wife apart by assuring each that the other was dead. That conduct alone stamps him as a villain. Then, again, he threw all kinds of obstacles in the way while we were investigating this case."
"What for?"
"My own opinion is that Hilliston committed the murder."
Captain Larcher clenched his hand, and thought for a few moments.
"It might be so," he muttered, more to himself than to Tait. "Hilliston was in the garden. If he loved my wife—a fact which I never suspected—he might have killed Jeringham out of jealousy."