“Theo — Ulverston — that damned groom of yours!”
“Indeed! But has a sentry been posted at my door?”
“No! Not at your door, but at mine!” Martin said bitterly. “Chard is sitting outside my room. The only wonder is that he has not locked me in!”
“Dear me! How, may I ask, did you contrive to slip past him unnoticed? Or is there also a secret way into your room?”
“No, there is not! I climbed out of the window. I tell you, I had to see you!”
“Why, Martin?”
“They think I tried to kill you!”
“Have they said so?”
“Not in so many words, but the questions they have asked me — the way they look at me! I’m not a fool! I know what they think! They say my gun and my shot-belt were found where — where it happened, and that I had rounds of ball in my belt! I had not! It is a damned lie, St. Erth! Good God, what should I want with ball when all I went for was an accursed pair of kestrels, and perhaps a pigeon or two?”
“Did you get the kestrels?” enquired Gervase.