Ezra Grice decided before the five minutes were up. He caved in, abjectly. As soon as the trial was over, and Forbes was sentenced, Norwood coolly told him that unless he left Frattenbury at once and never returned, he would prosecute him for theft. “And if I say what I know?” asked Grice. “They won’t believe you if you do; and if they do believe you, then you’ll be prosecuted for perjury as well.” Again the wretched clerk gave in. But before he left the office that very day he made a fresh discovery—a paper which Norwood had left out of his safe that absolutely incriminated him. He was half inclined to make use of this paper and have his revenge on the wily lawyer, but fear got the better of him. However, when he left Frattenbury the next day he took this paper with him and kept it carefully. He went out to South Africa and led a roving life for years keeping honest all the time. He had had one great fright, and that was enough for him. He always kept the incriminating paper; he was in dread that perhaps one day his crime might follow him, and he looked upon it as a weapon of defence in case he ever met Norwood again. Finally, as Sir James Perrivale had said, he joined Reginald Templeton in an exploration in the interior. “It was a long time,” he went on to the Canon, “before I told Mr. Templeton my story—and he was the only man to whom I ever told it before the police took it down here. I happened to mention Frattenbury one day, and he questioned me, but I didn’t let him know anything then. However, I saw he knew something about the Forbes case and was interested in it. “Then he saved my life. I got to like him. He was a queer man, but very kind to me always. I shall never forget how he stood by me on that awful journey before we struck Sir James Perrivale’s camp. My arm was broken and I was down with fever. He’d help to carry the stretcher himself—miles at a time. “I asked him point-blank one day if he was interested in Forbes. He only answered ‘Yes.’ Then I said, ‘Would it be any use to you to know he was innocent of that charge?’ I shan’t forget what he said. He questioned me eagerly and I told him all about it. Then he said, ‘Thank God for this, Grice. Forbes died long ago; but he’s left a daughter—and, by God, that scoundrel Norwood shall make it up to her!’ “He made me promise I’d go back to England with him—if we ever came through—and help him expose Norwood—or, rather, he said he was not going to expose him—he’d got a better card to play than that. But it seemed that I wasn’t going to get back to England. They all thought me dying when we got to the camp. Mr. Templeton had to go on, but before he left he wrote down my statement which I signed before witnesses, and asked me to give him that paper I had on me. Of course I did, and then he told me what he was going to do. I can hear him saying it now.