the landlord of the "carne's arms" was somewhat puzzled by a stranger who had just been dropped at his door by the coach from plymouth. he did not look like either a fisherman or an artist, or even a wandering tourist. his clothes were somewhat rough, and the landlord would have taken him for a farmer, but what could any strange farmer be stopping at carnesford for? there were no farms vacant in the neighbourhood, nor any likely to be, so far as the landlord knew; besides, the few words his guest had spoken as he entered had no touch of the devonshire dialect. while he was standing at the door, turning the matter over in his mind—for he rather prided himself upon his ability to decide upon the calling and object of his guests, and was annoyed by his failure to do so in the present instance—the man he was thinking of came out of the coffee-room and placed himself beside him.
"well, landlord, this is a pretty village of yours; they told me in plymouth it was as pretty a place as any about, and i see they were right."
"yes, most folks think it's pretty," the landlord said, "although i am so accustomed to it myself i don't see a great deal in it."
"yes, custom is everything. i have been accustomed for a great many years to see nothing much but plains, with clumps of bush here and there, and occasionally a herd of deer walking across it. i have been farming down at the cape, and so, you see, a quiet, pretty place like this is very pleasant to me."
"i should think it is quiet enough farming there," the landlord said. "i have heard from folk who have been out in some of those parts that you often haven't a neighbour nearer than four miles away."
"that's true enough, landlord, but the life is not always quiet for all that. it's not quiet, for instance, when you hear the yell of a hundred or so savages outside your windows, or see a party driving half your cattle away into the bush."
"no, i shouldn't call that quiet; and that is what you have been doing?"
"yes, i was in the disturbed part when the kaffirs rose. most of our neighbours were killed, and we had a hard time of it, but some mounted police came up just in time. i have had trouble three or four times before, and it's no use going on for years rearing cattle if they are to be all swept away by the natives, and you are running the risk of getting your throat cut in the bargain; so, after this last affair, i locked up my farmhouse, drove off what cattle i had got left, and sold them for what i could get for them, and here i am."
"yes, here you are," repeated the landlord; "and what next?"
"the ship touched at plymouth, and i thought i might as well get out there as anywhere else. well, there is too much noise and bustle at plymouth. i haven't been used to it, and so now i am just looking for a little place to suit me. i have been up to tavistock, and then some one said that carnesford was a pretty village. i said i would look at carnesford, and so you see here i am."
"what sort of a place are you looking for?" the landlord asked, looking at his visitor closely, and mentally appraising his worth.
"oh, quite a little place, i should say about twenty pounds a year. i suppose one could get a girl to help from the village, and could live for another eighty. that's about what i could afford."
"oh, yes, i should say you could do that," said the landlord, thoughtfully, "but i don't know that there is any such place to let anywhere about here. there is a nice cottage at the other end of the village just empty. it's got a good garden, and is rather away from the rest of the houses; but the rent is only half-a-crown a week. that wouldn't do for you."
"well, i wanted something better than that; but still i might have a look at it. of course if i took it i should want to stay, and i might as well spend a little money in doing it up to my fancy as in paying higher rent. by the way, my name is armstrong. perhaps you wouldn't mind putting on your hat and showing me this place you speak of. we have been used to roughing it, and don't want anything fine."
the cottage was certainly large and roomy, and stood in a pretty garden. but its appearance was not prepossessing, for it differed from most of the other little houses in the village inasmuch as it was not, like them, half hidden by roses and creepers climbing over it.
"yes, it's rough, decidedly rough," mr. armstrong said, "still there is a pretty view down the valley. now i should save nearly fourteen pounds in rent by taking this instead of a twenty pound a year house; and if one were to put up a verandah round it, touch up the windows somehow, and put pretty paper on the walls, i should say that at the end of two years it would stand me in just the same. that and plenty of roses and things would make it a pretty little place. who is the landlord?"
"the landlord is mr. carne, up at the hold; that's the big house on the hill. but he is away at present. mr. kirkland, a lawyer at plymouth, is his agent, and sees to the letting of his houses and that sort of thing. his clerk comes over once a month to collect the rents. i expect you would have to go to him even if mr. carne was at home. squire was never much down in the village in the best of times, and we have hardly seen his face since his sister's death."
"yes, they were telling us about that affair at plymouth," the colonist said, quietly. "it was a bad business. well, have you got some pretty sociable sort of fellows in the village? i like a chat as well as any man, and i should want some one to talk to."
"well, i don't know that they would be your sort," the landlord said, doubtfully. "there's the clergyman—and the doctor——"
"oh, no. i don't want to have to do with clergymen and doctors—we colonists are pretty rough and ready fellows, and it's no odds to us what a man is. a man stops at your door, and in he comes, and he is welcome—though he is only a shepherd on the look-out for work; sometimes one of the kaffir chiefs with nothing on but a blanket and a leather apron, will stalk in and squat down and make himself at home. oh, no. it's tradesmen i mean, and perhaps the small farmers round."
"well, we are pretty well off for that, mr. armstrong. there is hiram powlett, the miller, and jacob carey, the blacksmith—they drop in pretty regular every evening and smoke a pipe with me, in what i call my snuggery; and there's old reuben claphurst—he was the clerk at one time, and is a wonderful chap for knowing the history of every family for miles round; and there's some of the farmers often come in for a glass—if you are not too proud for that sort of company."
"proud! bless your heart, what is there to be proud about; ain't i been working as a farmer for years and years with no one to talk to but my own hands?—i mean my own men. no, that's just the thing to suit me; anyhow, i think i will try the experiment. if at the end of a couple of years i don't like it, why, there is no harm done."
"well, i am sure we shall be all glad to have you here, mr. armstrong; we like getting some one from outside, it freshens our ideas up a bit and does us good. we are cheerful enough in summer with the artists that come here sketching, and with the gentlemen who sometimes come to fish; but the rest of the year i don't often have a stranger at the 'carne's arms.'"
two days later mr. armstrong returned to carnesford with a builder from plymouth. the following day, five or six workmen appeared, and in a fortnight a considerable transformation had been made in the cottage. a verandah was run round the front and two sides. some rustic woodwork appeared round the windows, and the interior of the house was transformed with fresh paper and paint. nothing could be done in the way of roses and creepers, as these could not be moved at that time of year, for it was now just midsummer.
the day after the workmen went out, a waggon load of furniture, simple and substantial, arrived, and on the following day the coach brought down the new tenants. a girl had already been engaged in the village to act as servant. miss armstrong was quietly and plainly dressed, and might, by her attire, be taken for the daughter of a small farmer, and the opinion in the village, as the newcomers walked through on their way to the cottage, was distinctly favourable. in a very short time mr. armstrong became quite a popular character in carnesford, and soon was on speaking terms with most of the people. he won the mothers' hearts by patting the heads of the little girls, and praising their looks. he had a habit of carrying sweets in his pockets, and distributing them freely among the children, and he would lounge for hours at the smith's door, listening to the gossip that went on, for in carnesford, as elsewhere, the forge was the recognised meeting-place of those who had nothing to do. he was considered a wonderful acquisition by the frequenters of the snuggery at the "carne's arms," and his stories of life at the cape gave an added interest to their meetings. hearing from hiram powlett that he had a wife and daughter, he asked him to get them, as a matter of kindness, to visit his daughter; and within a fortnight of his arrival, he and mary went to tea to the mill.
several times the conversation in the snuggery turned upon the murder at the hold. in no case did the new-comer lead up to it, but it cropped up as the subject which the people of carnesford were never weary of discussing. he ventured no opinions and asked no questions upon the first few occasions when the subject was being discussed, but smoked his pipe in silence, listening to the conversation.
"it seems strange to me," he said at last, "that you in this village should never have had a suspicion of any one except this captain mervyn; i understand that you, mr. claphurst, and you, mr. carey, have never thought of any one else; but mr. powlett—he always says he is sure it isn't him. but if it wasn't him, mr. powlett, who do you think it was?"
"ah, that is more than i can tell," hiram replied. "i have thought, and i have thought, till my head went round, but i can't see who it can have been."
"miss carne seems to have had no enemies?"
"no, not one—not as i ever heard of. she was wonderful popular in the village, she was; and as for the squire, except about poaching, he never quarrelled with any one."
"had he trouble with poachers, then?"
"well, not often; but last year, before that affair, there was a bad lot about. they were from dareport—that's two miles away, down at the mouth of the river—with one or two chaps from this village, so it was said. about a fortnight—it may be three weeks—before miss carne was killed, there was a fight up in the woods between them and the gamekeepers. one of the keepers got stabbed, but he didn't die until some time afterwards; but the jury brought it in wilful murder all the same. it didn't matter much what verdict they brought in, 'cause the man as the evidence went against had left the country—at least, he hadn't been seen hereabouts."
"and a good job too, hiram—a good job too," jacob carey put in.
"yes," hiram said, "i admit it; it was a good job as he was gone—a good job for us all. he would never have done any good here, anyway; and the best job as ever he did for himself, as i know of, was when he took himself off."
there was a general chorus of assent.
"what was the man's name?" mr. armstrong asked, carelessly.
"his name was george forester," jacob carey said.
as they were going out from the snuggery that evening, the landlord made a sign to mr. armstrong that he wanted to speak to him. he accordingly lingered until the other men had left.
"oh, i thought i would just tell you, mr. armstrong, seeing that your daughter and you have been to the mill, it's just as well not to talk about the poaching and george forester before ruth powlett. you see, it's rather a sore subject with her. she was engaged to that george forester, and a lot of trouble it gave her father and mother. well, i expect she must have seen now that she had a lucky escape. still, a girl don't like a man as she has liked being spoken against, so i thought that i would say a word to you."
"thank you; that's very friendly of you. yes, you may be sure that i won't introduce the subject. i am very glad you told me, or i might have blundered upon it and hurt the girl's feelings. she doesn't look very strong, either. she has a nervous look about her, i think."
"she used to be very different, but she had a great shock. she was the first, you know, to go into miss carne's room and find her dead. she was her maid before that, and she was ill for weeks after. it came on the top of an illness, too. she fell down on the hill coming home from church, and they found her lying insensible there, and she was very bad—had the doctor there every day. then came this other affair, and i dare say this business of george forester's helped too. anyhow, she was very bad, and the doctor thought at one time that she wouldn't get over it."
mr. armstrong walked home thoughtfully.
"well, father, what is your news?" mary armstrong said, as he entered. "i can see you have heard something more than usual."
"well, my dear, i don't know that it's anything, but at the same time it certainly is new, and gives us something to follow up. it seems that there was a fellow named george forester living somewhere about here, and he was engaged to your friend, ruth powlett, but her father and mother disapproved of it highly. they say he was a bad lot; he got mixed up with a gang of poachers, and some little time before this murder, about three weeks before, they had a fight with mr. carne's keepers; one of the keepers was mortally wounded, it was said by this george forester. the man lived for some time, but at last died of the wound, and the jury brought in a verdict of wilful murder against george forester, who had been missing from the time of the fight."
"yes, father, but that seems no great clue."
"perhaps not, mary, but it shows at least that there was one fellow about here who may be considered to have had a quarrel with the carnes, and who was a thoroughly bad character, and who—and this is of importance—was engaged, with or without her parents' consent, to miss carne's own maid."
mary gave a little gasp of excitement.
"now it seems, further," her father went on, "that some time between this poaching affray and the murder—i could not inquire closely into dates—ruth powlett was found insensible on the road going up the hill, and was very ill for some days; she said she had had a fall, and of course she may have had, although it is not often young women fall down so heavily as to stun themselves. but it may of course have been something else."
"what else, father?"
"well, it is possible she may have met this lover of hers, and that they may have had a quarrel. probably she knew he had been engaged in this poaching affair, and may have told him that she would have nothing more to do with him, and he may have knocked her down. of course, this is all mere supposition, but it is only by supposition that we can grope our way along. it seems she was well enough anyhow to go up to her place again at the hold, for she was the first to discover the murder, and the shock was so great that she was ill for weeks, in fact in great danger; they say she has been greatly changed ever since. i don't know whether anything can be made of that, my dear."
"i don't know. i don't see what, father," mary said, after thinking for some time, "unless she is fancying since that it was this man who did it. of course, anyhow, it would be a fearful shock for a girl to find her mistress lying murdered, and perhaps it may be nothing more than that."
"no doubt, it may be nothing more than that, mary; but it's the other side of the case we have to look at. let us piece the things together. here we have four or five facts, all of which may tell. here is a bad character in the village; that is one point. this man had a poaching affray with mr. carne's keepers; he killed, or at any rate the coroner's jury found that he killed, one of the keepers. he is engaged to miss carne's own maid. this maid is just after this poaching business found insensible in the wood, and tells rather an improbable story as to how it came about. she is the first to enter her mistress's room, and then she has a serious illness. of course, any girl would be shocked and frightened and upset, but it is not so often that a serious illness would be the result. and lastly, she has been changed ever since. she has, as you remarked to me the other day, an absent, preoccupied sort of way about her. taken altogether, these things certainly do amount to something."
"i think so too, father; i think so too," mary armstrong said, walking up and down the little room in her excitement. "i do think there may be something in it; and you see, father, after this poaching business, the man wanted to get away, and he may have been in want of money, and so have thought of taking miss carne's watch and jewels to raise money to take him abroad."
"so he might, my dear. that is certainly a feasible explanation, but unfortunately, instead of taking them away, you see he buried them."
"yes, father, but he only just pushed them into the ground, the report said; because on reading through the old files of the newspapers the other day i particularly noticed that. well, father, you see, perhaps just as he was leaving the house a dog may have barked, or something may have given him a scare, and he may just have hidden them in the ground, intending to come for them next day; and then, what with the excitement and the police here, and the search that was being made, he could get no opportunity of getting them up again, and being afraid of being arrested himself for his share in the poaching affray, he dared not hang about here any longer, but probably went down to plymouth and got on board ship there. of course, all this is nothing more than supposition, still it really does not seem improbable, father. there is only one difficulty that i can see. why should he have killed miss carne, because the doctors say that she was certainly asleep?"
"we cannot tell, dear. she may have moved a little. he may have thought that she would wake, and that he had better make sure. he was a desperate man, and there is no saying what a desperate man will do. anyhow, mary, this is a clue, and a distinct one, and we must follow it up. it may lead us wrong in the end, but we shall not be losing time by following it, for i shall keep my ears open, and may find some other and altogether different track."
"how had we better follow it?" mary asked, after having sat silent for some minutes. "this forester is gone, and we have no idea where. i think the only person likely to be able to help us is ruth powlett."
"exactly so, my dear."
"and she would not be likely to speak. if she knows anything she would have said it at the trial had she not wished to shield this man, whom she may love in spite of his wickedness."
"quite so, my dear; and besides," and he smiled, "young women in love are not disposed to believe in their lovers' guilt."
"how can you say so, father?" mary said, indignantly; "you would not compare——"
"no, no, mary; i would not compare the two men; but i think you will admit that even had the evidence against ronald mervyn been ten times as conclusive as it was, you would still have maintained his innocence against all the world."
"of course i should, father."
"quite so, my dear; that is what i am saying; however, if our supposition is correct in this case, the girl does believe him to be guilty, but she wishes to shield him, either because she loves him still or has loved him. it is astonishing how women will cling to men even when they know them to be villains. i think, dear, that the best way of proceeding will be for you to endeavour to find out from ruth powlett what she knows. of course it will be a gradual matter, and you can only do it when she has got to know and like you thoroughly."
"but, father," mary said, hesitating, "will it not be a treacherous thing for me to become friends with her for the purpose of gaining her secret?"
"it depends how you gain it, mary. certainly it would be so were you to get it surreptitiously. that is not the way i should propose. if this girl has really any proof or anything like strong evidence that the murder was committed by this man forester, she is acting wrongly and cruelly to another to allow the guilt to fall upon him. in time, when you get intimate with her, intimate enough to introduce the subject, your course would be to impress this upon her so strongly as to induce her to make an open confession. of course you would point out to her that this could now in no way injure the man who is her lover, as he has gone no one knows where, and will certainly never return to this country, as upon his appearance he would at once be arrested and tried on the charge of killing the gamekeeper. all this would be perfectly open and above-board. then, mary, you could, if you deemed it expedient, own your own strong interest in the matter. there would be nothing treacherous in this, dear. you simply urge her to do an act of justice. of course it will be painful for her to do so, after concealing it so long. still, i should think from the little i have seen of her that she is a conscientious girl, and is, i doubt not, already sorely troubled in her mind over the matter."
"yes, father, i agree with you. there would be nothing treacherous in that. i have simply to try to get her to make a confession of anything she may know in the matter. i quite agree with you in all you have said about the man, but i do not see how ruth powlett can know anything for certain, whatever she may suspect; for if she was, as you say, dangerously ill for a long time after the murder, she cannot very well have seen the man, who would be sure to have quitted the country at once."
"i am afraid that that is so, mary. still, we must hope for the best, and if she cannot give us absolute evidence herself, what she says may at least put us in the right track for obtaining it. even if no legal evidence can be obtained, we might get enough clues, with what we have already, to convince the world that whereas hitherto there seemed no alternative open as to mervyn's guilt, there was in fact another against whom there is at any rate a certain amount of proof, and whose character is as bad as that of captain mervyn is good. this would in itself be a great step. mervyn has been acquitted, but as no one else is shown to have been connected with it in any way, people are compelled, in spite of his previous character, in spite of his acquittal, in spite in fact even of probability, to consider him guilty. once shown that there is at least reasonable ground for suspicion against another, and the opinion, at any rate of all who know mervyn, would at once veer round."
"very well, father; now you have done your part of the work by finding out the clue, i will do mine by following it up. fortunately, ruth powlett is a very superior sort of girl to any one in the village, and i can make friends with her heartily and without pretence. i should have found it very hard if she had been a rough sort of girl, but she expresses herself just as well as i do, and seems very gentle and nice. one can see that even that sharp-voiced stepmother of hers is very fond of her, and she is the apple of the miller's eye. but you must not be impatient, father; two girls can't become great friends all at once."
"i think, on the whole, miss armstrong," her father said, "you are quite as likely to become impatient as i am, seeing that it is your business much more than mine."
"well, you may be sure i shall not lose more time than i can help, father." mary armstrong laughed. "you don't know how joyous i feel to-night, i have always been hopeful, but it did seem so vague before. now that we have got what we think to be a clue, and can set to work at once, i feel ever so much nearer to seeing ronald again."
the consequence of this conversation was that mary armstrong went very frequently down to the mill, and induced ruth powlett, sometimes, to come up and sit with her.
"i am very glad, mr. armstrong," hiram powlett said, one evening, when they happened to be the first two to arrive in the snuggery, "that my ruth seems to take to your daughter. it's a real comfort to hesba and me. you would have thought that she would have taken to some of the girls she went to school with, but she hasn't. i suppose she is too quiet for them, and they are too noisy for her. anyhow, until now, she has never had a friend, and i think it will do her a world of good. it's bad for a girl to be alone, and especially a girl like ruth. i don't mind telling you, mr. armstrong, that hesba and i have an idea that she has got something on her mind, she has been so changed altogether since miss carne's murder. i might have thought that she had fretted about that scamp forester going away, for at one time the girl was very fond of him, but before it happened she told me that she had found out he would never make her a good husband, and would break it off altogether with him; so you see i don't think his going away had anything to do with it. once or twice i thought she was going to say something particular to me, but she has never said it, and she sits there and broods and broods till it makes my heart ache to see her. now she has got your daughter to be friends with, perhaps she may shake it off."
"i hope she may, mr. powlett. it's a bad thing for a girl to mope. i know mary likes your daughter very much; perhaps, if she has anything on her mind, she will tell mary one of these days. you see, when girls get to be friends, they open their hearts to each other as they won't do to any one else."
"i don't see what she can have on her mind," the miller said, shaking his head. "it may only be a fancy of mine. hesba and i have talked it over a score of times."
"very likely it's nothing, after all," mr. armstrong said. "girls get strange fancies into their heads, and make mountains out of molehills. it may be nothing, after all; still, perhaps she would be all the better for the telling of it."
hiram powlett shook his head decidedly. "ruth isn't a girl to have fancies. if she is fretting, she is fretting over something serious. i don't know why i am talking so to you, mr. armstrong, for i have never spoken to any one else about it; but your daughter seems to have taken so kindly to ruth that it seems natural for me to speak to you."
"i am glad you have done so, mr. powlett, and i hope that good may come from our talk."
it was not until a fortnight after this chat that mary had anything to communicate to her father, for she found that whenever she turned the conversation upon the topic of the murder of miss carne, ruth evidently shrank so much from it that she was obliged to change the subject.
"to-day, father, i took the bull by the horns. ruth had been sitting there for some time working without saying a word, when i asked her suddenly, as if it was what i had been thinking over while we were silent: 'what is your opinion, ruth? do you think that captain mervyn really murdered his cousin?' she turned pale. she has never much colour, you know, but she went as white as a sheet, and then said, 'i am quite sure that he did not do it, but i don't like talking about it.' 'no, of course not,' i said. 'i can quite understand that after the terrible shock you had. still, it is awful to think that this captain mervyn should have been driven away from his home and made an outcast of if he is innocent.' 'it serves him right,' ruth said, passionately. 'how dare he insult and threaten my dear miss margaret? nothing is too bad for him.' 'i can't quite agree with you there,' i said. 'no doubt he deserved to be punished, and he must have been punished by being tried for his cousin's murder; but to think of a man spending all his life, branded unjustly with the crime of murder, is something too terrible to think of.' 'i dare say he is doing very well,' she said, after a pause. 'doing well,' i said, 'doing well! what can you be thinking of, ruth? what sort of doing well can there be for a man who knows that at any moment he may be recognised, that his story may be whispered about, and that his neighbours may shrink away from him; that his wife, if he ever marries, may come to believe that her husband is a murderer, that his children may bear the curse of cain upon them? it is too terrible to think of. if captain mervyn is guilty, he ought to have been hung; if he is innocent, he is one of the most unfortunate men in the world.' ruth didn't say anything, but she was so terribly white that i thought she was going to faint. she tried to get up, but i could see she couldn't, and i ran and got her a glass of water. her hand shook so that she could hardly hold it to her lips. after she drank some she sat for a minute or two quiet, then she murmured something about a sudden faintness, and that she would go home. i persuaded her to stay a few minutes longer. at last she got up. 'i am subject to fainting fits,' she said; 'it is very silly, but i cannot help it. yes, perhaps what you say about captain mervyn is right, but i never quite saw it so before. good-bye,' and then she went off, though i could see she was scarcely able to walk steadily. oh, father, i feel quite sure that she knows something; that she can prove that ronald is innocent if she chooses; and i think that sooner or later she will choose. first of all she was so decided in her assertion that ronald was innocent; she did not say 'i think,' or 'i believe,' she said 'i am quite sure.' she would never have said that unless she knew something quite positive. then the way that she burst out that it served him right, seems to me, and i have been thinking about it ever since she went away an hour ago, as if she had been trying to convince herself that it was right that he should suffer, and to soothe her own conscience for not saying what would prove him innocent."
"it looks like it, mary; it certainly looks like it. we are on the right trail, my girl, i am sure. that was a very heavy blow you struck her to-day, and she evidently felt it so. two or three more such blows, and the victory will be won. i have no doubt now that ruth powlett somehow holds the key of this strange mystery in her hand, and i think that what you have said to her to-day will go a long way towards inducing her to unlock it. forester was the murderer of miss carne, i have not a shadow of doubt, though how she knows it for certain is more than i can even guess."
