The thief must have known when Mrs. Stevens was coming, or she must have waited for him just outside the colonel's grounds.
There was a place where the road was heavily fringed with trees, not more than a hundred yards from the colonel's gate.
The trick must have been done there, if at all.
Nick resolved to settle this small point, if possible, immediately.
It was of no use to ask the man who had driven Mrs. Stevens' horse. Of course, he would lie, if there was any need of it.
So Nick excused himself from the group on the pretext that he was going to search Mrs. Pond's rooms again.
He remembered that just after Mrs. Stevens had arrived, a wagon belonging to the colonel had driven into the grounds. He quietly looked up the two servants who had been in this wagon. They told him that they remembered seeing Mrs. Stevens drive up.
She had passed them on the road. They had had her carriage in sight for a mile before it turned into Colonel Richmond's grounds.
Her horse had been driven at a good pace. It had not stopped. Nobody had approached the carriage.
Nick was convinced that the men were telling the truth.