"Who can swear to that?" retorted Lee. "You Gorgios make nothing of deceiving our women-folk. We are not of your race, and your laws are not for us. If Zara is not married to one of the two Gentiles I speak of, they know who she is married to. They can tell me if they choose, and I shall force them to speak out," added the gipsy, fiercely. "When I know the truth I'll----"
"Lee, I implore you to do nothing rash."
"I shall mend my honour in my own way, rye. It is an oath."
With this dramatic declaration on his lips, Lee swung off down the hill to escape further reproof and entreaty. Johnson, knowing the fierce nature of the wanderer, looked after him with an air of doubt. When Pharaoh's evil passions were roused, he struck at once, swift and true as a wounded snake. It seemed as if Tera's murder were to be followed by another, and Johnson sighed as he thought of all that had happened so suddenly to trouble the hitherto smoothly-flowing current of his life. Since he had fallen in love with Tera there had been nothing but trouble, and he could not see how or where it was all to end.
Anxious-minded and hopeless of aid, the minister resumed his upward way, and shortly reached the brow of the hill, where the corn-lands stretched towards Poldew. Unconsciously his feet had led him into the very path along which Bithiah must have passed to her mysterious death. The omen chilled him for the moment, but shaking off the superstition, as incompatible with his calling as a teacher, he stepped resolutely along the grassy way which meandered through the stubble field. Some power drew him, almost against his will, towards the fatal spot.
As he walked along he caught sight of a burly figure bending down in the field. As he approached he recognized Jeremiah Slade. Knowing neither the man's ambitions nor the interest he took in the case, Johnson wondered what he was doing so near the place where the body had been found. His curiosity being excited, he crossed the ridgy furrows, and walked up to the policeman.
"What are you looking for, Slade?" Jeremiah straightened himself, and a light came into his dull blue eye. "I ain't lookin' now," said he, cunningly, "as I've found something already--something as is worth the findin' too."
"What is it?"
"You seem mighty anxious to know, sir," was the constable's reply, with a suspicious glance.
"Naturally, I wish to know anything bearing upon the fate of poor Bithiah."