This was not the first time that Priscilla had been so greeted in Framsby; but such proofs of the position she occupied in the hearts of the people, though gratifying, when considered from one standpoint, did not throw the light that was needed upon the question of what stone would, when turned, reveal the form of Captain Lyman ready to make an affidavit that should have weight with a judge. So while Priscilla drove home gratified by the kindly spirit shown by her sympathisers, Jack could not help feeling that he would gladly have exchanged it all for a single statement, made in the presence of a commissioner for taking oaths, bearing out the admission of Marcus Blaydon in regard to that woman on the other side of the Atlantic. Of course Priscilla quickly perceived that he was becoming uneasy, and equally as a matter of course she found out the cause of the uneasiness. He told her something of what Messrs. Liscomb and Liscomb had communicated to him, though he did not go so far as to let her know that they considered the absent evidence to be vital to the success of the petition. She took his explanation without saying more than a word or two. “If Captain Lyman is not to be found we cannot have his evidence, whether for us or against us,” she said. “And that being so, we shall have to do our best without it. I have great faith in Sir Edward’s power of cross-examining. If he puts that man in the witness-box he should be able to get him to confess as much as he did to you.” Jack did not tell her that Messrs. Liscomb and Liscomb had explained to him that perhaps Marcus Blaydon might be prevented from going into the box by his own advisers, who might think it advisable to let the judge say whether or not she had succeeded in establishing her petition when she had been examined before him. It was well known that a very strong case indeed required to be made out in favour of pronouncing a marriage null and void before a judge would make such a pronouncement. So Messrs. Liscomb and Liscomb had told him; but he kept this information to himself. It was with that phrase about leaving no stone unturned ringing in his mind, as if it were Messrs. Liscomb and Liscomb’s telephone bell, that he sent off to the governor of the prison where Marcus Blaydon had been incarcerated the postcard which contained upon its gummy surface the imprint of the finger-tips of the man who had visited the Manor claiming Priscilla as his wife. In spite of the absolute certainty of Priscilla that he was Marcus Blaydon, Jack thought that there was just a chance that he was an impostor. Even within his experience there had been cases of men impersonating others with a view to blackmail or to an inheritance. There was just a chance that this man was not the real Marcus Blaydon, but a scoundrel of a slightly different pattern.