"Perhaps," she said. "But, you see, you don't know him. It's just because of that--that quiet--that--oh, I don't quite know how to explain!--that--well, silence--that I'm afraid--yes, literally afraid. There's something about him that makes me fear. I used to wish that my uncle had never employed him--that he had never come here. And--I'd rather be penniless than that my uncle had ever got him--him!--to witness that will!" Selwood found no words wherewith to answer this. He did not understand it. Nevertheless he presently found words of another sort. "All right!" he muttered doggedly. "I'll watch him--or, I'll watch that he--that--well, that no harm comes to--you know what I mean, don't you?" "Yes," murmured Peggie, and once more held out an impulsive hand. But Selwood again pretended to see nothing, and he began another energetic assault upon the papers which Jacob Herapath would never handle again. CHAPTER XVII THE LAW Once within a taxi-cab and on their way to Maida Vale, Mr. Halfpenny turned to his companion with a shake of the head which implied a much mixed state of feeling. "Tertius!" he exclaimed. "There's something wrong! Quite apart from what we know, and from what we were able to communicate to the police, there's something wrong. I feel it--it's in the air, the--the whole atmosphere. That fellow Barthorpe is up to some game. What? Did you notice his manner, his attitude--everything? Of course!--who could help it? He--has some scheme in his head. Again I say--what?" Mr. Tertius stirred uneasily in his seat and shook his head. "You haven't heard anything from New Scotland Yard?" he asked. "Nothing--so far. But they are at work, of course. They'll work in their own way. And," continued Mr. Halfpenny, with a grim chuckle, "you can be certain of this much, Tertius--having heard what we were able to tell them, having seen what we were able to put before them, with respect to the doings of that eventful night, they won't let Master Barthorpe out of their ken--not they! It is best to let them pursue their own investigations in their own manner--they'll let us know what's been done, sure enough, at the right time." "Yes," assented Mr. Tertius. "Yes--so I gather--I am not very conversant with these things. I confess there's one thing that puzzles me greatly though, Halfpenny. That's the matter of the man who came out of the House of Commons with Jacob that night. You remember that the coachman, Mountain, told us--and said at the inquest also--that he overheard what Jacob said to that man--'The thing must be done at once, and you must have everything ready for me at noon tomorrow,' or words to that effect. Now that man must be somewhere at hand--he must have read the newspapers, know all about the inquest--why doesn't he come forward?" Mr. Halfpenny chuckled again and patted his friend's arm.