“Were you expecting a visit from him last evening?” asked Gerry, with a keen eye to the rector’s perturbation.
“I cannot say that I was.”
“Has he called here frequently?”
“Quite so.”
“Come, come, Doctor Royal, what were his precise relations here?” demanded Gerry suspiciously. “You appear averse to letting go of something. If you know of any facts that may shed a ray of light upon this case, let’s have them at once. I’m sure that you personally can have no reason for hiding anything.”
“By no means,” cried Doctor Royal, with extreme nervousness. “I would give the world to know the truth of this dreadful affair.”
“What of Kendall, then, and his relations here?”
“Well—really—as a matter of fact, he was in love with my daughter,” faltered the rector, trembling visibly. “In a word, Detective Gerry, he was about the same as engaged to her.”
“Oh, ho! Then it’s barely possible that jealousy led some party to kill him,” cried Gerry, quickly snapping up the clue. “Has your daughter any other admirer who might be guilty of this?”
“I—I—really I can name no one who——”