"I did," he said, defiantly. "I dare not tell you for you have always had so many absurd prejudices. So I told you I was going for a walk, and stole out to meet Jenner at the Waggoner's Pond. I said that if he would wait till I was married and could handle money I would buy the bill. So, finding that unless I made your sister my wife I should never have a penny, he consented."
"Oh," said Mr. Cass, "he consented to go without his pound of flesh--a man like Jenner, bloodsucker and thief!"
"He had to choose between exposing me and getting nothing or waiting and being paid," said Marshall, vehemently. "Besides, he knew that Roper was after him because he had stolen the bill, and that if he made a fuss, whatever row I might get into, he would be in trouble himself. So he agreed to wait until I had married Inez and then to accept a thousand pounds. Meanwhile, he kept the bill and promised to hold his tongue about it. He said he was going on to see his wife at the Turnpike House, and that he would get money from her which would enable him to lie low for a time while Roper was searching for him. It was arranged that when I was married and had paid him the thousand pounds he should go to America. I agreed to all this--I could do nothing else--and then we parted."
"Is that the truth?" Heron asked, sceptically.
"Yes, it is. You can believe or disbelieve it as you like. I left him by the Waggoner's Pond, and that was the last I saw of him alive or dead. On my way back to the house I was attacked by some tramps who took my watch. They wrenched my links off--that is one pair, the missing pair--and were about to take the other when they heard someone coming and made off. I returned here and told Cass as little as I could, in case he might see fit to stop my marriage with his sister."
"I wish to Heaven I had stopped it!" Mr. Cass said, fiercely. "I don't believe a word you say!"
[CHAPTER XXIII.]
STILL IN DOUBT.
Marshall, seeing that the two men were silent, began to recover his self-command. "I see you don't believe me. Perhaps there is no reason why you should. But I swear I do not know who killed Jenner. If I had known I should have got that bill out of him."
"Oh!" said Geoffrey. "And you would have condoned his sin so long as he gave you back the evidence of your own."