“There’s your proof!” the Viscount said, pointing to the cord.
“My dear Lucy, proof that someone tried to play a malicious trick on me, but not proof that my death was intended.”
“Stuff!” the Viscount said explosively. “How can you stand there talking such crack-brained nonsense to me, Ger?”
“Well, I am not dead, am I?”; said Gervase. “I am not even hurt, and that I was stunned for a moment or two might be thought a mischance. If I had not fallen with my head upon the carriage-drive, that would not have occurred.”
“What the devil are you trying to make me believe now?” demanded Ulverston, staring at him. “Do you take this to have been a schoolboy prank? There is no schoolboy in the case!”
“Oh, don’t you think so? I find Martin not a step removed from that state. I own, I do not perfectly understand him, but it is sufficiently plain to me that he thinks I should be the better for a sharp set-down. You heard what passed at the table this morning: ‘St. Erth is perfection itself!’ was what he said before he flung himself out of the room. Well! it would certainly have afforded him satisfaction had I, the day you came here, suffered a ducking in a muddy stream. I did not do so, so perhaps I had instead to be made to rumble off my horse — such a nonpareil among horsemen am I said to be! By the way, I wonder who did say so?”
“It don’t matter who said it, or if no one said it!” replied the Viscount, quite exasperated. “This is all a damned hum! Your precious brother ain’t such a boy that he didn’t know the thing might have had fatal consequences!”
“If he had paused to consider the matter at all,” agreed St. Erth. “It is quite a question, you know, whether he does pause to consider what may be the outcome of his more headlong actions. Come in!”
A knock had sounded on the door, and this opened to admit Theo. Gervase instantly said: “Oh, the devil! No. Go away, Theo! Lucy has said it all for you!”
Theo shut the door, and advanced into the room. “No use, Gervase! I am determined to know what happened to you this afternoon. Ulverston has already said enough to make me uneasy — and I beg that you won’t insult my intelligence with any more tales of stumbling into rabbit-holes, for they won’t fadge!”