"Well, they seemed to talk as if it were a gentleman. I did not much notice."
"A gentleman?"
"I think so. I am sure they said 'he' and 'him.' Perhaps Mrs. Grey's husband has arrived. Whoever it is he must be very ill, for I heard papa say the case must be 'grave,' and the doctor called it 'dangerous.' They have gone on together now to see poor Hannah Whittle."
Not since he had had the affair in hand had the detective's ears been regaled with so palatable a dish. That Philip Salter had been taken ill with some malady or another sufficiently serious to necessitate the summoning of a doctor, he fully believed. Miss Jemima resumed.
"I must say, considering that papa is the medical attendant there, Mrs. Grey might have had the good manners to consult him first."
"It may be the old gardener that's ill," observed the detective slowly, who had been turning his thoughts about.
"So it may," acquiesced Miss Jemima. "He's but a poor, creaky old thing by all accounts. But no--they would hardly go to the expense of telegraphing for a physician for him with papa at hand."
"Oh, they telegraphed, did they?"
"So the groom said."
"The girl is right," thought the detective. "They'd not telegraph for Hopley. It is Salter. And they have called in a stranger from a distance in preference to Mr. Moore close by. The latter might have talked to the neighbourhood. You have done me a wonderful service, young lady, if you did but know it."