"She's quiet now, miss," said a woman to her significantly, nodding towards the hovel. "Just after Jenkins got in you could hear her crying out pitiful."
"That was when they wor a-handcuffin' him," said a man beside her.
Marcella shuddered.
"Will they let me in?" she asked.
"They won't let none ov us in," said the man. "There's Hurd's sister," and he pointed to a weeping woman supported by two others. "They've kep' her out. But here's the inspector, miss; you ask him."
The inspector, a shrewd officer of long experience, fetched in haste from a mile's distance, galloped up, and gave his horse to a boy.
Marcella went up to him.
He looked at her with sharp interrogation. "You are Miss Boyce? Miss
Boyce of Mellor?"
"Yes, I want to go to the wife; I will promise not to get in your way."
He nodded. The crowd let them pass. The inspector knocked at the door, which was cautiously unlocked by Jenkins, and the two went in together.