Harrison’s quick mind leapt at once to a possible explanation.
“Ha! Now we shall hear something about the lady of the lake, no doubt,” he said.
“It’s about Messenger’s daughter,” Mrs. Harrison replied. “She’s—she has disappeared. They are looking for her; and Messenger wants to know if they can go down to the plantation. He has apparently got some idea that she may be there.”
“Oh!” commented Harrison on a falling note, and exchanged a glance of understanding with his wife. Then they both turned and looked at Fell.
He had almost forgotten the resolutions he had made an hour earlier, and was quite unprepared to meet the silent accusation that was now levelled at him.
“I—I don’t know anything about it,” he stammered.
“Oh, well,” Harrison said. “Let’s go and hear what Messenger and the Sergeant have to tell us. I suppose this means that we shall have to make another pilgrimage to the lake.”
Greatorex, in the rear of the procession, was heard to remark that he was damned if he could make head or tail of it.