"I can't say, Absalom. He escaped from prison in 1893, and we hunted for him high and low, but without success. He vanished as completely as though the earth had swallowed him up. I thought myself he might have gone to Kirkstone Hall to kill Miss Gilmar; and I searched the neighbourhood, but he was nowhere to be found. From that day to this not a word has been heard of him." "I suppose there is no use hunting for him?" "It is waste of time, to my mind," retorted Parge, crossly. "You see what Mrs. Presk is doing. Question her; question the servant who---- By the way, what is the servant's name?" "Matilda Crane; but she knows nothing." "It's as well to ask her, however," warned Parge. "The people who seem to know least usually know most. Now go away, Absalom, and don't be so long in looking me up again. I'm anxious to get to the bottom of this case." "You can't be more anxious than I am," replied Gebb, disconsolately. "At all events, I am more hopeful," rejoined Parge, and dismissed his pupil, who went away with the conviction that the old man was worn out--that he was past work--and that no aid or useful advice could be expected from him. But Gebb still had sufficient reverence for his elder not to hint at these things. Besides, Parge might have turned the tables on him had he been too frank. The next day he went down to Grangebury, and called at the Town Hall to interview the caretaker. He proved to be a smart ex-soldier, with an observant eye and a good memory, which gifts he made use of on the present occasion for the benefit of Gebb, and also of his own pocket. "I remember the lady quite well," he said, after some thought. "The young gentleman called himself Mr. Ferris, and told me he was going in, but that a lady, by name Miss Wedderburn, would come afterwards; and he asked me to bring her up to where he was sitting in the front seats. She came in about half-past nine o'clock, but refused to let me take her up to the front, as she did not wish to disturb the lecturer. She sat down near the door, and when the lecture ended the young gentleman joined her, and they went out together." "Were they in the hall before ten o'clock?" asked Gebb. "Yes, sir. Before ten and after ten. I saw them both." This unprejudiced testimony put the matter beyond all doubt So Gebb gave the man a florin, and went away quite convinced that Ferris and Edith were innocent. He next called upon Mrs. Presk, and had an interview with that lady, and with her servant. What the landlady told him may be gathered from a conversation later in the day which Gebb had with Edith.