“No—no, that isn’t what we mean,” interrupted the squire. “To be plain with you, Bristow, a report has got abroad—no matter how it originated—that you were somehow mixed up in that very queer piece of business.”
“In other words, people think that because I was Mr. Dering’s friend, it must be I who assisted him to escape?”
“That’s just about it,” said the squire. “You couldn’t have put it in plainer language.”
“Well, gentlemen, I will tell you candidly that believing firmly, as I do, in Mr. Dering’s innocence, I would gladly have assisted him to escape had it lain in my power to do so. But I think I shall be able to prove to your entire satisfaction that, unless it is possible for a man to be in two places at once, I was in a direction quite the opposite of that of Duxley gaol at the exact time that the escape was being carried into effect.”
“There! what did I tell you?” said the squire triumphantly. “I knew the lad was innocent.”
“Mr. Bristow has yet to enlighten us as to his proceedings on the night in question,” said Sir Harry, stiffly.
“In the first place,” said Tom, “if you will kindly send for Mrs. Potts, my landlady, who is, I believe, a most trustworthy woman, you will find on inquiry of her that, on the night of the escape, the clock had just struck eleven as I reached home. Mrs. Potts, will remember the circumstance, because, a minute or two after going indoors, I heard her fastening up the house as usual, and I called over the banisters to ask her the time, my watch having stopped for want of winding up. On hearing my question, Mrs. Potts held up her candle to the face of the old case-clock in the entrance-hall, and called out that it was just five minutes past eleven. Now, if I was in my own lodgings at five minutes past eleven, I could not have had anything to do with the escape of Mr. Dering, who, it was proved in evidence by the warders, did not set foot outside the gates till a quarter of an hour past that time.”
“Of course not. The thing’s as clear as daylight,” said the squire, heartily.
“Perhaps, Sir Harry, you will kindly send for Mrs. Potts,” said Tom. “I should like you to hear the corroboration of my story from her lips, while I am here.”
“Drayton, send one of your men with my compliments to Mrs. Potts, and——”