Then, for the first time, Meredith threatened to break down. He wrung his brother’s hand with a force which made Vernon turn white, and when he answered, it was with sobs in his voice.
“I’m a scoundrel, Vernie,” he almost gasped. “But if you save me again, on my soul I’ll be better to them than many an honest man.”
CHAPTER XXVI.
Ned Mitchell, although he had let Meredith Brander off easily at the moment of the discovery of the body, had no intention of letting his sister’s murderer escape the just punishment of his crime. The discovery of the vicar’s ring inside the poor girl’s remains had not been altogether unexpected by Ned and by the doctor, whom he had taken into his confidence. He had had the wit to connect the vicar’s loss of his ring, which the girl must have stolen and secreted unnoticed by him in the course of their last fatal interview, with the strange threat Nellie Mitchell had uttered to Martha Lowndes. He had confided his suspicions to the doctor, who had thus been on the alert to prevent Meredith from touching the remains of the murdered girl before he himself had examined them.
After a few words of explanation to old Mr. Williams, and a little substantial advice to the two workmen who had dug out the skeleton, Ned marched off with Abel Squires in the direction of Rishton Vicarage. On the way they passed Vernon Brander, who wished to stop Ned. But the latter hurried on, and to all the entreaties he tried to utter, turned a deaf ear.
“If you’ve been fool enough to hold your tongue for ten years, and bear the blame of somebody else’s crime, that’s nothing to do with me. You may talk till you’re tired, but my sister’s murderer shall get what he deserves.”
And he walked on stubbornly with the tramp.
When they reached the Vicarage, and asked to see the vicar, they were shown into the drawing-room, and left waiting there for some minutes. When the door opened, it was Mrs. Brander, instead of her husband, who came in.
“What, has he run away already?” asked Ned, in a hard, jeering tone.
“No, my husband does not yet know you are here,” she answered, in a very sad voice. “I knew you would come, and so I told the servant to announce your arrival to me.”