“This’ll be the place,” said the tall one presently; “this mound gives a man a good foothold, and he can throw the girl in instead of pushing her.”
“Yes,” said the other. “James Maitland mustn’t make the appointment with the girl here, but in the wood, and then they can walk this way. He’ll start quarrelling with her here, and then he can throw her in.”
“Where’s he to go to when he’s done it? Run away?”
“No; stop and brazen it out. Nobody will see him or the girl together. We can arrange that, and the suspicion is sure to fall on the other fellow, because of what’s already passed between him and Norah. Besides,” said the short fellow, “who’s going to accuse Maitland? Nobody knows that he’s mixed up with the girl.”
The tall fellow thought a bit.
“Yes,” he said, “I think that’ll be the best. I don’t see how we can get rid of the girl in any better way than that. If she was shot or stabbed, nobody could set up the theory of suicide; but if she’s found drowned, of course there’ll be nothing to prove that she didn’t go in of her own accord.”
When Harry got to that, I said, “Oh, Harry, it makes one’s blood run cold to think of the villains coolly plotting to murder a young girl like that!”
“Yes,” he said, “it made me feel creepy, and the inspector said, ‘I think I’ll collar them now. We’ve heard enough. If we let it go on they may make up their minds to have this poor girl murdered somewhere else, and then we may be too late.’
“He was just about to spring out and collar them, when the short fellow said to the long fellow, ‘One minute, my boy. I’ve got a magnificent idea. There’ll be an inquest. Can’t we make the comic man foreman of the jury? I can see a splendid scene—the comic man rubbing it into the villain and getting roars of laughter.’”
“What!” I exclaimed. “A comic man on a jury!”