“Won’t you come to the farm and rest a bit? There’s only Mother there.”
“I’d rather stay out here. Oh, Lucy, I know that you have it in your power to help Mr. Garlett!”
With the caution always shown by the more intelligent of her class when face to face with the unknown, Lucy Warren remained silent for a while, gazing, however, fixedly into Jean Bower’s troubled face.
“How might that be?” she asked at last.
“The gentleman who is to defend Mr. Garlett says it’s all-important to find out who was with him in the wood the night you saw him there,” answered Jean in a trembling voice. “I do implore you to tell me who it was, Lucy?”
“I promised Mother I wouldn’t say nothing,” said Lucy hesitatingly.
“But your mother’s a good woman! She wouldn’t want you to keep anything back that might save an innocent man!” cried Jean wildly.
“I always said to Mother that I should have to say summat—sooner or later.”
Jean stared at the girl in breathless suspense.
“The young lady as met Mr. Garlett in the wood,” said Lucy at length, “was Miss Cheale.”