“There’s another man gone since then, sir,” said the sergeant gloomily.
“What do you mean? Who’s gone?”
“I thought it right to let you know, sir—I was within writing a report on the matter when I seen you drive into the town—that Patsy Devlin the smith is gone. His wife was up at the barrack shortly after Constable Moriarty left with the young lady, and she says he’s missing.”
“It’s a queer thing,” said Mr. Goddard, “that two men should disappear in this sort of way within a couple of days of each other. It looks bad. Let’s take them one at a time and see what we can make out of them. What have you to say about the doctor?”
“Everybody knows the reason he’s made off,” said the sergeant, “only nobody’d like to be telling the young lady, and that’s what has us all put about the way we are.”
“Do you mean debt?”
“I do, sir. It’s common talk. Jimmy O’Loughlin told me himself——”
“It’s not true anyhow, whether Jimmy O’Loughlin said it or not. Whatever it was made the doctor bolt, it wasn’t that.”
“Then I don’t know what it would be.”
“No more do I; but I’m going to see Lord Manton and talk to him about it.”