At the station Clara readily found the Mr. O'Brien to whom Billings had referred for corroboration of a part of his story.
"Yes'm," he said in reply to her questions, "I know the Billings you speak of. I saw him here last Monday. Has he been up to anything crooked?"
"I don't know," said Clara; "it may help to settle that if you will tell me what were the circumstances of his call here."
O'Brien hesitated.
"I don't want to get tangled up in any police business," he declared; "Billings was said to be the man who drove the gent that skipped on his wedding day early this week."
"Yes," said Clara; "I am Miss Hilman, and I was to be married to the gentleman."
"Sho!" exclaimed O'Brien, sympathetically, "that must have been a pretty tough blow," and he scratched his head thoughtfully.
"My inquiry," continued Clara, "has nothing to do with the police. They have abandoned the investigation, I believe. I am trying simply to satisfy myself, and surely you won't refuse to help."
"No, I won't," replied O'Brien; "but what I can say won't do you no good. This was how it was. I had to go out to the front of the depot for something, and just as I got there, Billings drove up a closed carriage. I thought he nodded as if he wanted me, so I stepped forward. He pulled up further on than where carriages generally stop, and was in a place all by himself. I was the only one near. 'Hello,' says I, 'how long you been driving?' 'Mind your own business,' says he, and he whipped up and drove off. While I was speaking to him a man had got out of the carriage and gone into the depot. I didn't see him to know him, didn't pay any attention to him, for he went quickly, and I was wondering about Billings."
"He says you came forward to get his passenger's baggage."