"I beg pardon, gentlemen," answered the sergeant. "I was not speaking to any of you; I was following up the bent of mine own thoughts. It suddenly flashed into my mind who it is that I have seen in one of these cloaks."
"And who is it?" asked Mr. Dare.
"You must excuse me, sir, if I keep that to myself," was the answer.
"As tall a man as William Halliburton?"
The sergeant ran his eyes up and down William's figure. "A shade taller, I should say, if anything."
"And it struck me that the man who made off across the field was a shade taller," observed Samuel Lynn.
"Well, I can't make sense of it," resumed Mr. Dare, breaking a pause. "Let us allow, if you like, that there are fifty such cloaks in the town. Unless one, wearing such, had access to Mr. Ashley's counting-house, to this very room that we are now in, how does the fact of there being others remove the suspicion from William Halliburton?"
Mr. Dare had not intended wilfully to cause him pain. He had forgotten for the moment that William was a stranger to the doubt raised touching himself. Amidst the deep silence that ensued, William looked from one to the other.
"Who suspects me?" he asked, surprise the only emotion in his tone.
Sergeant Delves tapped him significantly on the shoulder. "Never you trouble yourself, young sir. If what has come into my mind be right, it isn't you who are guilty."