The two magistrates looked at each other, and Mr. Egerton answered, "Your suspicion is a shrewd one, Cousins; but now, tell us sincerely, from all that you have seen and heard, do you think that Captain Delaware has been one of those concerned?"
"Why, really, sir, I can not say!" answered the officer; "but to tell the truth--though there is no knowing, after all--nevertheless--not to speak for a certainty, you know--but still, I should think not."
"You are now speaking to us in confidence, you know, Cousins," said Doctor Wilton; "and indeed, we are altogether acting extra-officially in regard to the murder, though we think it may connect itself with the other affair. Tell us, therefore, why you judge it was not Captain Delaware."
"Why, sir, that is difficult to say," replied the officer. "But first and foremost, do you see, it strikes me that the job was done by as knowing a hand as ever was on the lay--one that has had a regular apprenticeship like. Well, as far as I can hear, that does not match the captain. Then, next, whoever did it, has got in upon the sly by means of the girl, whether she be an accessory or not. At all events, she has gone off with her 'complices. She's never murdered--never a bit of her, take my word for that! Then you see, sir, when I had done with Ryebury, I went away to Emberton Park House; and though there was a mighty fuss to get in, all the family being gone, yet I managed it at last, and got a whole heap of the captain's old boots and shoes, and measured them with the footmarks, and on oath I could prove that none of them--neither those up, nor those down stairs--the marks I mean--ever came off his foot."
"Why, it would seem to me, that what you have said would go very far to exculpate him altogether," said Dr. Wilton.
"Ay, sir! but that is a mighty rum story about the notes," answered the officer. "It would make a queer case for the 'sizes, any how. Nevertheless, I don't think him guilty; and if he would explain about the money, all would be clear enough--but that story of his won't go; and if he sticks to it and is caught, he'll be hanged if Judge ---- tries him. He'll get off if it come before Sir ----. He did well enough to slip his head out of the collar, any way."
"But do you think that Ruthven will catch him then demanded Dr. Wilton, with no small anxiety.
"Why, not so easy as if he were an old thief," replied the officer; "for you see, sir, we know all their haunts, and where they'll take to in a minute, while this young chap may go Lord knows where!"
Both the magistrates paused thoughtfully for a minute or two, and at length Dr. Wilton went on: "You see, Cousins, the fact is this, that the coroner having issued his warrant against Captain Delaware, our straightforward duty as magistrates is to use all means to put the warrant in execution; and we are neither called upon, nor have we perhaps a strict legal right, after a verdict has been pronounced, to seek for evidence in favor of the person against whom that verdict has been given. At the same time, we are blamed for not committing the prisoner at once; and the coroner is blamed for not sending him off to the county jail the moment the verdict was given, though it was then night. It is also a part of our clearest duty to do all in our power to bring the guilty to punishment, an to prepare the case, in a certain degree, for the officers of the crown; consequently, without any great stretch of interpretation, we may consider ourselves justified in using every means to satisfy ourselves who are innocent, and who are guilty. You think that Captain Delaware is not the culprit; and you think that three persons have, at all events, been concerned in the murder. Some suspicion of this kind must also have been in the minds of the coroner's jury, when they returned a verdict against Captain William Delaware, and some person or persons unknown. It is our next business, therefore, to search for those persons unknown, by every means in our power."
"Why, as to the captain, sir," answered Cousins, "the business would be soon settled, if we could find out how he came by the money."