Tom, who happened to be at home, went back with the messenger without a moment’s hesitation; but it would, perhaps, be too much to say that his heart did not misgive him a little as he walked smilingly into the lion’s den. Mr. Culpepper shook hands with him, and pointed to a chair next his own. Sir Harry nodded and said, “How do you do, Mr. Bristow?” but looked anxious and flurried. Drayton coughed behind his hand, and quietly changed his position so as to get between Tom and the door. “There’s no knowing what may happen,” said the superintendent to himself. “He may grow desperate as soon as he finds it’s all up with him.” “We have sent for you, Bristow,” said the squire, “that we may have a little talk with you about Mr. Dering’s extraordinary escape.” “It was indeed an extraordinary escape, sir,” said Tom; “but I am not aware that I am in a position to furnish you with any special information respecting it. The ‘Duxley Gazette’ seems to me——” “No—no, that isn’t what we mean,” interrupted the squire. “To be plain with you, Bristow, a report has got abroad—no matter how it originated—that you were somehow mixed up in that very queer piece of business.” “In other words, people think that because I was Mr. Dering’s friend, it must be I who assisted him to escape?” “That’s just about it,” said the squire. “You couldn’t have put it in plainer language.” “Well, gentlemen, I will tell you candidly that believing firmly, as I do, in Mr. Dering’s innocence, I would gladly have assisted him to escape had it lain in my power to do so. But I think I shall be able to prove to your entire satisfaction that, unless it is possible for a man to be in two places at once, I was in a direction quite the opposite of that of Duxley gaol at the exact time that the escape was being carried into effect.” “There! what did I tell you?” said the squire triumphantly. “I knew the lad was innocent.” “Mr. Bristow has yet to enlighten us as to his proceedings on the night in question,” said Sir Harry, stiffly. “In the first place,” said Tom, “if you will kindly send for Mrs. Potts, my landlady, who is, I believe, a most trustworthy woman, you will find on inquiry of her that, on the night of the escape, the clock had just struck eleven as I reached home. Mrs. Potts, will remember the circumstance, because, a minute or two after going indoors, I heard her fastening up the house as usual, and I called over the banisters to ask her the time, my watch having stopped for want of winding up. On hearing my question, Mrs. Potts held up her candle to the face of the old case-clock in the entrance-hall, and called out that it was just five minutes past eleven. Now, if I was in my own lodgings at five minutes past eleven, I could not have had anything to do with the escape of Mr. Dering, who, it was proved in evidence by the warders, did not set foot outside the gates till a quarter of an hour past that time.”