“It is not nonsense,” she answered. “It is at least a possibility. You were in the wood that night, and you had a rifle with you. There were two shots, and one of them hit Dick Bracknell. One of those shots came from my rifle, but from whose rifle did the second come? Yours! I say.”
“Mine!” he cried harshly. “You must be mad. You cannot have thought over what you are saying.”
“No,” she countered, “I am not mad, I am quite sane, and I have thought a great deal over the matter.”
“But why should I shoot Dick Bracknell masquerading as Koona Dick? He was not my husband?”
“No,” replied Joy coolly, “but he was mine, and you had somehow become aware of the fact. If I am not mistaken, you yourself aspired to marry me——”
“Men are sometimes smitten with madness,” he interposed sneeringly. “But there is another possibility that I can suggest to you, of which you do not seem to have thought. That precious corporal who was here; he had a gun! Also, I fancy that he would find the death of Dick Bracknell no heartbreaking business, as it would bring him within a step of the succession to Harrow Fell; and as Jeff Bracknell is now dead, it puts him absolutely on the doorstep. Have you thought of that?”
“There is no need that I should,” answered Joy promptly. “Roger Bracknell had no knowledge that the man whom he knew as Koona Dick was his cousin, until he picked up a note which Dick had written to me, which was some time after the firing had taken place. I know that, and your suggestion is merely preposterous.”
“You think so,” he laughed. “I wonder why?” Something in his tones brought the blood flaming to Joy Gargrave’s face. Her eyes flashed indignantly. Rayner laughed again brutally.
“Not that there is any need for wonder,” he said maliciously. “You seem to be in great vogue with the Bracknells. It must be a family weakness for——”
“How dare you?” She took a step forward, and suddenly raised the dog whip in her hand. Rayner backed quickly, and instinctively raised his hand. But the long lash smote him on the face, and he gave vent to a savage oath.