“Oh, well; that quite settles it. By the way, only yesterday afternoon poor Mr. Stanworth was asking me to do him a favour the next time I went for a walk. It was to call in and see someone called Prince for him, and——” “Prince?” Mrs. William interrupted with unexpected energy. “Don’t you go going anywhere near _him_, sir.” “Why not?” Roger asked eagerly, flashing a look of triumph at Alec. Mrs. William hesitated. “You do mean Prince, sir? John?” “Yes, John; that’s right. Why mustn’t I go anywhere near him?” “Because he’s dangerous, sir,” said Mrs. William vehemently. “Downright dangerous! In fact”—she lowered her voice significantly—“it’s my opinion that he’s a little mad.” “Mad?” Roger echoed in surprise. “Oh, come; I don’t think that can be the case, can it?” “Well, look how he went for Mr. Stanworth that time, sir. You know about that, of course?” Roger hurriedly checked a whistle. “I’ve heard something about it,” he said glibly. “Er—attacked him, didn’t he?” “That he did, sir. And all for no reason at all. In fact, if one of Mr. Wetherby’s farm hands hadn’t luckily been by, he might ’ave done Mr. Stanworth a power of harm. Of course they did their best to hush it up; it gives the place a bad name if them things get about. But _I_ heard on it all right.” “Indeed? I had no idea it was as bad as that. There was—how shall I put it?—bad blood between them?” “Well, you might call it that, sir. He seemed to take a dislike to Mr. Stanworth the very first time ’e saw him, like.” “Rather a drastic way of showing it,” Roger laughed. “Perhaps he has got a screw loose, as you say. He hasn’t been here long then?” “Oh, no. Not more’n a matter of three weeks or so, sir.” “Well, I think I shall risk it. What I wanted to ask you was the quickest way of getting there.” “To Mr. Wetherby’s? Why, you can’t go quicker than follow the road through the village, sir; that takes you straight there. It’s about a mile an’ a half from here, or maybe a trifle more.” “Mr. Wetherby’s; yes. Let me see, that’s——?” “Hillcrest Farm, sir. A very nice gentleman he is, too. Him an’ Mr. Stanworth was getting quite friendly before—before——” “Yes,” said Roger hurriedly. “Well, thank you very much. I’m so sorry to have kept you all this time.” “You’re welcome, sir, I’m sure,” rejoined Mrs. William smilingly. “Good-afternoon, sir.” “Good-afternoon.” Mrs. William popped back into her lodge again, and the two struck into the main road. Roger’s pent-up emotions burst forth as soon as they were out of earshot. “_There!_” he exclaimed. “What do you think of that, eh?” “Extraordinary!” Alec ejaculated, hardly less excited. “But what a bit of luck just to hit on possibly the one person who would have been willing to give us all the information. Luck? It’s positively uncanny. Well, I never guessed that detecting was as easy as this.” “We’re going straight after this man Prince, then?” “You bet we are. We want to catch our bird before he flies.”