"No trace so far, anywhere. All the main line stations have been closely watched. But Marvell is of opinion that if young Brand had anything to do with it he would certainly give the railway a wide berth. He is much more likely to take to the fells. They tell the most extraordinary tales of his knowledge of the mountains—especially in snow and wild weather. They say that shepherds who have lost sheep constantly go to him for help!"
"—You know him?"
"I have talked to him sometimes. A queer sulky fellow with one or two fixed ideas. He certainly hated Melrose. Whether he hated him enough to murder him is another question. When I visited them, the mother told me that Will had rushed out of the house the night before, because he could not endure the sight of his father's sufferings. The jury I suppose will have to know that. Well!—You were going on to Pengarth?"
Tatham assented. Boden paused, leaning on his bicycle.
"Take Threlfall on your way. I think Faversham would like to see you. There are some strange things being said. Preposterous things! The hatred is extraordinary."
The two men eyed each other gravely. Boden added:
"I have been telling your mother that I think I shall go over to
Threlfall for a bit, if Faversham will have me."
Tatham wondered again. Faversham, prosperous, had been, it seemed to him, a special target for Boden's scorn, expressed with a fine range of revolutionary epithet.
But calamity of any kind—for this queer saint—was apt to change all the values of things.
They were just separating when Tatham, with sudden compunction, asked for news of Mrs. Melrose, and Felicia.