"I wish you may get it," cried Mr. Bethel. "The reminiscence is not
attractive."

"You'll do it," quietly said Mr. Carlyle. "It has been told me, though
it did not appear at the inquest, that Richard Hare held a conversation
with you in the wood a few minutes after the deed was done. Now--"

"Who told you that?" interrupted Bethel.

"That is not the question. My authority is indisputable."

"It is true that he did. I said nothing about it, for I did not want to
make the case worse against Dick Hare than it already was. He certainly
did accost me, like a man flurried out of his life."

"Asking if you had seen a certain lover of Afy's fly from the cottage.
One Thorn."

"That was the purport. Thorn, Thorn--I think Thorn was the name he
mentioned. My opinion was, that Dick was either wild or acting a part."

"Now, Bethel, I want you to answer me truly. The question cannot affect
you either way, but I must know whether you did see this Thorn leave the
cottage."

Bethel shook his head. "I know nothing whatever about any Thorn, and
I saw nobody but Dick Hare. Not but what a dozen Thorns might have run
from the cottage without my seeing them."

"You heard the shot fired?"