“A true one. That Sir Dace did kill him.”
“Goodness bless me!” gasped the Squire, his good old face taking a lighter tint. “What on earth do you mean, man?”
“Well, I mean just that,” answered Chandler. “And I feel myself to be, in consequence, in an uncommonly awkward position. One can’t well accuse Sir Dace, a man close upon the grave; and Paul’s relative in addition. And yet, Captain Tanerton must be cleared.”
“I can’t make top or tail of what you mean, Tom Chandler!” cried the Squire, blinking like a bewildered owl. “Don’t you think you are dreaming?”
“Wish I was,” said Tom, “so far as this business goes. Look here. I’ll begin at the beginning and go through the story. You’ll understand it then.”
“It’s more than I do now. Or Johnny, either. Look at him!”
“When Mrs. John Tanerton brought to us that accusation of Sir Dace, on the strength of her dream,” began Chandler, after glancing at me, “I thought she must have turned a little crazy. It was a singular dream; there’s no denying that; and the exact resemblance to Sir Dace Fontaine of the man she saw in it, was still more singular: so much so, that I could not help being impressed by it. Another thing that strongly impressed me, was Captain Tanerton’s testimony: from the moment I heard it and weighed his manner in giving it, I felt sure of his innocence. Revolving these matters in my own mind, I resolved to go to Sir Dace and get him to give me his version of the affair; not in the least endorsing in my own mind her suspicion of him, or hinting at it to him, you understand; simply to get more evidence. I went to Sir Dace, heard what he had to say, and brought away with me a most unpleasant doubt.”
“That he was guilty?”
“That he might be. His manner was so confused, himself so agitated when I first spoke. His hands trembled, his lips grew white, He strove to turn it off, saying I had startled him, but I felt a very queer doubt arising in my mind. His narrative had to be drawn from him; it was anything but clear, and full of contradictions. ‘Why do you come to me about this?’ he asked: ‘have you heard anything?’ ‘I only come to ask you for information,’ was my answer: ‘Mrs. John Tanerton wants the matter looked into. If her husband is not guilty, he ought to be cleared in the face of the world.’ ‘Nobody thinks he was guilty,’ retorted Sir Dace in a shrill tone of annoyance. ‘Nobody was guilty: Pym must have fallen and injured himself.’ I came away from the interview, as I tell you, with my doubts very unpleasantly stirred,” resumed Chandler; “and it caused me to be more earnest in looking after odds and ends of evidence in London than I otherwise might have been.”
“Did you pick up any?”