“Prince?” Mrs. William interrupted with unexpected energy. “Don’t you go going anywhere near him, sir.”
“Why not?” Roger asked eagerly, flashing a look of triumph at Alec.
Mrs. William hesitated. “You do mean Prince, sir? John?”
“Yes, John; that’s right. Why mustn’t I go anywhere near him?”
“Because he’s dangerous, sir,” said Mrs. William vehemently. “Downright dangerous! In fact”—she lowered her voice significantly—“it’s my opinion that he’s a little mad.”
“Mad?” Roger echoed in surprise. “Oh, come; I don’t think that can be the case, can it?”
“Well, look how he went for Mr. Stanworth that time, sir. You know about that, of course?”
Roger hurriedly checked a whistle. “I’ve heard something about it,” he said glibly. “Er—attacked him, didn’t he?”
“That he did, sir. And all for no reason at all. In fact, if one of Mr. Wetherby’s farm hands hadn’t luckily been by, he might ’ave done Mr. Stanworth a power of harm. Of course they did their best to hush it up; it gives the place a bad name if them things get about. But I heard on it all right.”
“Indeed? I had no idea it was as bad as that. There was—how shall I put it?—bad blood between them?”
“Well, you might call it that, sir. He seemed to take a dislike to Mr. Stanworth the very first time ’e saw him, like.”
“Rather a drastic way of showing it,” Roger laughed. “Perhaps he has got a screw loose, as you say. He hasn’t been here long then?”
“Oh, no. Not more’n a matter of three weeks or so, sir.”
“Well, I think I shall risk it. What I wanted to ask you was the quickest way of getting there.”
“To Mr. Wetherby’s? Why, you can’t go quicker than follow the road through the village, sir; that takes you straight there. It’s about a mile an’ a half from here, or maybe a trifle more.”
“Mr. Wetherby’s; yes. Let me see, that’s—?”
“Hillcrest Farm, sir. A very nice gentleman he is, too. Him an’ Mr. Stanworth was getting quite friendly before—before—”
“Yes,” said Roger hurriedly. “Well, thank you very much. I’m so sorry to have kept you all this time.”
“You’re welcome, sir, I’m sure,” rejoined Mrs. William smilingly. “Good afternoon, sir.”
“Good afternoon.”
Mrs. William popped back into her lodge again, and the two struck into the main road.
Roger’s pent-up emotions burst forth as soon as they were out of earshot. “There!” he exclaimed. “What do you think of that, eh?”
“Extraordinary!” Alec ejaculated, hardly less excited.
“But what a bit of luck just to hit on possibly the one person who would have been willing to give us all the information. Luck? It’s positively uncanny. Well, I never guessed that detecting was as easy as this.”
“We’re going straight after this man Prince, then?”
“You bet we are. We want to catch our bird before he flies.”
“You think he intends flying?”
“Most probably, I should say,” Roger replied, striding along the dusty road at top speed. “He’s only been in the place three weeks, you see, so he evidently came with the full intention of doing what he has done; now the job’s accomplished there’s no need for him to stay any longer. Oh, he’s a clever one, is Master Prince. But not quite clever enough.”
“He attacked Stanworth once before apparently and in broad daylight.”
“Yes, didn’t she bring that out beautifully? I could have screamed with excitement. It all fits together, doesn’t it? ‘Seemed to take a dislike to him at first sight, like.’ Ah, Mrs. William, that wasn’t first sight; not by a long chalk. I expect that happened after Stanworth wrote his letter; otherwise he’d have mentioned it.”
“It may have been in one of the bits that have disappeared.”
“That’s true; there were some long gaps. Look here, I’ll tell you what we’d better do—call in at the village pub on our way and see if we can get any more information out of the landlord. He’s sure to know everything that happens round here.”
“That seems a sound scheme,” Alec agreed readily.
“In the meantime, let’s marshal our facts—that’s the correct phrase, isn’t it? This man Prince has managed to obtain employment of some kind on the farm of a Mr. Wetherby, who appears to be a gentleman farmer. That was a cunning move of his, by the way; gives a reason for his presence in the neighbourhood, you see. He came here for some definite purpose connected with Stanworth; I don’t say murder necessarily, that may not have been intended at first. The very first time he saw Stanworth his feelings were so much for him that he went for the old man bald-headed. The affair was hushed up, but there’s certain to have been some gossip about it.”
“Silly thing to do, that,” Alec commented.
“Yes, very; showed his hand too soon. Still, there you are; he did it. And now let us devote all our energies to reaching this scorching village. Time’s precious, and I want to ruminate a little.”
They walked rapidly down the winding white road into the village and made for the local public-house. Time was, indeed, so precious that no considerations of temperature could be allowed to interfere with their expenditure of it.
XV
Mr. Sheringham Amuses an Ancient Rustic
After the blazing sun and the dust, the cool bar of the old-fashioned little village inn, with its sanded floor and its brasses gleaming in the soft twilight, was remarkably welcome.
Roger buried his nose thankfully in his tankard before getting to business.
“My word, that’s good!” he observed in heartfelt tones to the landlord, setting the tankard down half empty on the polished counter. “There’s nothing like beer for thirst, is there?”
“That’s true enough, sir,” replied the landlord heartily, both because it was good for trade and because he thoroughly believed it. “And you can’t have too much of it on
