"Indeed," said Fanks, eyeing Garth in a strange manner; "and has she done anything likely to forward your interest in that respect?"
"I suppose you mean to hint that she would like to clear Sir Louis out of my path by accusing him of the murder?" said Garth, coolly; "well, you are about right. Mrs. Jerusalem connects the absence of Sir Louis from Taxton-on-Thames with the death of Sir Gregory. She saw the report of the inquest, you know; she recognised--as she thinks--the description of Binjoy's servant Caesar, and, by putting two and two together, she told me yesterday that it is her firm conviction--on the slightest of proofs, remember--that Louis killed Gregory by means of the black man."
"Humph!" said Fanks, thoughtfully; "I must see this lady. But if she dislikes Sir Louis and Binjoy why does she stay in the service of the former?"
Garth shrugged his shoulders. "One must live," he said, "and Mrs. Jerusalem has a very easy time of it with my cousin. When my mother died, and we were as poor as rats, my father got Louis's father to take Mrs. Jerusalem into his service, and she has been there ever since. Oh, she will not tell my cousin that I am here," concluded Garth, with a satisfied nod.
"Mrs. Prisom may," suggested Fanks. "You may be sure that a good deal of gossip goes on between inn and Hall. How long have you been here?"
"About three days."
"Then you may be certain that your cousin knows of your presence in the village. If he has any danger to fear from you he will take his measures accordingly. I don't like your Mrs. Jerusalem, Garth; she ought to be true to her salt."
"I can't help that," retorted Garth, sulkily. "She would willingly keep house for me if I had a house to keep, but as I have not she stays where she is. But what do you think of her suspicions? Do yours point in the same way?"
"They did not," replied Fanks, promptly; "but your discovery of Sir Louis's visit to town on that night puts quite a different complexion on the case. All the same, I can come to no conclusion until I see this spy of yours."
"She isn't a spy," said Garth, gloomily. "I did not drag the information out of the creature. She thought that she was doing me a good turn by betraying my cousin. She thinks that if he killed Gregory he ought to suffer, and let me have the property."