Greyle was talking to Chatfield at the foot of the Keep when they got down. The agent turned surlily away, but the Squire looked at both with an unmistakable eagerness. "There's no doubt whatever that Oliver fell from the parapet," said Copplestone. "The marks of a fall are there--quite unmistakably." Greyle nodded, but made no remark, and the two made their way through the still eager crowd and went down to the village post-office. Both were wondering, as they went, about the same thing--the evident anxiety and mental uneasiness of Marston Greyle. CHAPTER XII GOOD MEN AND TRUE Copplestone saw little of his bed that night. At seven o'clock in the evening came a telegram from Sir Cresswell Oliver, saying that he and Petherton were leaving at once, would reach Norcaster soon after midnight, and would motor out to Scarhaven immediately on arrival. Copplestone made all arrangements for their reception, and after snatching a couple of hours' sleep was up to receive them. By two o'clock in the morning Sir Cresswell and the old solicitor and Gilling--smuggled into their sitting-room--had heard all he had to tell about Zachary Spurge and his story. "We must have that fellow at the inquest," said Petherton. "At any cost we must have him! That's flat!" "You think it wise?" asked Sir Cresswell. "Won't it be a bit previous? Wouldn't it be better to wait until we know more?" "No--we must have his evidence," declared Petherton. "It will serve as an opening. Besides, this inquest will have to be adjourned--I shall ask for that. No--Spurge must be produced." "If Spurge comes into Scarhaven," observed Copplestone, "he'll be promptly collared by the police. They want him for poaching." "Then they can get him when the proceedings are over," retorted the old lawyer, dryly. "They daren't touch him while he's giving evidence and that's all we want. Perhaps he won't come?--Oh he'll come all right if we make it worth his while. A month in Norcaster gaol will mean nothing to him if he knows there's a chance of that reward or something substantial out of it at the end of his sentence. You must go out to this retreat of his and bring him in--we must have him. Better go very early in the morning. "I'll go now," said Copplestone. "It's as easy to go by night as by day." He left the other three to seek their beds, and himself slipped quietly out of the hotel by one of the ground-floor windows and set off in a pitch-black night to seek Spurge in his lair. And after sundry barkings of his shins against the rocks and scratchings of his hands and cheeks by the undergrowth of Hobkin's Hole he rounded the poacher out and delivered his message. Spurge, blinking at his visitor in the pale light of a guttering candle, shook his head.