“Well, sir, I remember it well, because master was awful cantankerous about that time, worse than he ever was before or since; I thought I should have had to have left him.”
“Have you any idea why Captain Bradshaw was more irritable than usual about that time?”
Again the man was silent.
“Come, James, it is a matter of importance to your master—I may say of great importance. I am not asking these questions for amusement.”
“Well, sir,” the man said, “I believe master was bothered by letters from a man who was threatening him.”
Captain Bradshaw and Alice Heathcote uttered simultaneous ejaculations of surprise. But Prescott made a sign to them to be quiet, and proceeded with his cross-examination.
“Quite so, James; your master was troubled by a letter-writer, who threatened him. Well, James, Mr. Bingham, when he told you that, told you that it was important, for your master’s sake, that he should not receive these threatening letters.”
The man turned very pale.
“Come, James, you acted for the best, I have no doubt; you meant to do your master a service, and Captain Bradshaw will not be angry with you, if you do but speak the truth. You see we have all the particulars, we only wish to receive the corroboration from your own lips. Mr. Bingham told you that, for your master’s sake, it was important he should not receive these threatening letters, and he asked you to show all that came by post before giving them to your master?”
“Yes, sir, that was just it; he said he had found out the man who was sending the letters, and that he would be able in a few days to put a stop to it, and save master from being bothered. The day the letter did come, he told me I need not trouble any more, for that he was to see the man that night, and that master would not be annoyed in future.”