“I was his servant,” replied Harry, casting down his eyes, and speaking in a low voice. “And I—I betrayed him, and handed him over to the police.”
The little Doctor looked at Harry for some moments with great gravity, and then shook his head at him reproachfully. “My young friend—my dear young friend,”—he became quite melancholy over him—“it’s very evident to me that you are on the downward path—in the very devil’s clutches. You’ve been dreaming. Dandy Chater is as dead as Pharoah.”
“God forbid!” exclaimed Harry, turning very white. “What do you mean?”
“Dandy Chater was drowned—a week or two back—in that noble stream, the Thames.”
Harry burst into a roar of laughter. “A week or two back,” he exclaimed. “You must be out of your mind! Why, he’s been down here within these past few days—has been in Chelmsford Jail, to stand his trial for murder; and is now at large about the country somewhere—God be good to him, wherever he is—with the police hunting high and low for him.”
Cripps sat down suddenly on a bench. “Would you be so kind—so very kind, young man—as to call for a little drop of brandy—neat?” he said, in a shaky voice. “I’ve been persuading myself, for the last week, that I’d dreamed it all; and now I find that it’s all true.”
Harry called for the brandy and Cripps swallowed it, murmuring to himself, over and over again as he set down the empty glass—“Dandy Chater in the river—Dandy Chater got the necklace—Dandy Chater in Chelmsford Jail—Dandy Chater running about the country, with the police after him. And Ogledon said that he——”
He checked himself hurriedly there and got up. “You are a most estimable young man,” he said, addressing Harry—“and I would recommend you to drink as little as possible, and not to see more Dandy Chaters than you can help at once. Now, if you are going towards Bamberton, perhaps you’ll be good enough to put me on my road.”
Harry expressing his willingness to do so, the two went out of the inn together, and set off. For a long time, they walked in silence; but the Doctor’s mind was busy. Perhaps the mere fact of coming again in daylight among old well-remembered scenes jogged that blurred and faded thing, his memory; perhaps the sight, in the distance, of the towers of Chater Hall helped it still more. Whatever it may have been, he suddenly stopped in the road, just before they came to the village and clapped his hands together, with a cry; burst into a shriek of laughter; and began to dance and caper wildly about in the dust. Harry fully convinced, that the man had suddenly gone mad, backed away from him and stood ready to defend himself.
“Ho—ho—ho—!” screamed the Doctor, slapping his thighs, punching himself in the ribs, and still dancing as wildly as ever—“here’s a joke! Here’s a business! Here’s a topsy-turvy devilish upside-down affair! Ho—ho—ho—! It’s the other child; it’s the twin that was smuggled away!”