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A Terrible Secret by May Agnes Fleming
page 93 of 573 (16%)
upon them. He goes through the house with the velvet tread of a cat.
In the course of his wanderings everywhere, he brings up presently in
the stables, and finds them untenanted, save by one lad, who sits
solitary among the straw. He is rather a dull-looking youth, with a
florid, vacant face at most times, but looking dazed and anxious just
now. "Something on _his_ mind," thinks the superintendent, and sits
sociably down on a box beside him at once.

"Now, my man," Mr. Ferrick says, pleasantly, "and what is it that's
troubling _you_? Out with it--every little's a help in a case like
this."

The lad--his name is Jimmy--does not need pressing--his secret has
been weighing uneasily upon him for the last hour or more, ever since
he heard of the murder, in fact, and he pours his revelation into the
superintendent's eager ear. His revelation is this:

Last evening, just about dusk, strolling by chance in the direction of
the Laurel walk, he heard voices raised and angry in the walk--the
voices of a man and a woman. He had peeped through the branches and
seen my lady and a very tall man. No, it wasn't Sir Victor--it was a
much bigger man, with long black curling hair. Didn't see his face. It
was dark in there among the trees. Wasn't sure, but it struck him it
might be the tall, black-avised man, who came first the night Sir
Victor brought home my lady, and who had been seen skulking about the
park once or twice since. Had heard a whisper, that the man was Miss
Inez's brother--didn't know himself. All he did know was, that my lady
and a man were quarrelling on the evening of the murder in the Laurel
walk. What were they quarrelling about? Well, he couldn't catch their
talk very well--it was about money he thought. The man wanted money
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