Gowrie was so astonished by this speech that he would have asked for further information. But Mrs. Mountford, conscious perhaps that she had said too much, pushed him out of the room, and shortly he was hurrying towards the police-station as fast as his wicked old legs could carry him, sorely puzzled as to her meaning. "Maybe the Captain killed the auld mon," thought Gowrie, "but for why? Hoots! there's a deal o' deevilry in this case. Yon lassie wi' the bairn's face kens mair aboot the death o' her faither nor she'll say. But if this Don Giovanny--and that Kyles is, no less--plays her false, a' the fat wull be on the fire. Weel, the mair necessity for me tae hurry up wi' the arrest, and get the siller." Meanwhile, Maud Tedder was shut up in her room, lying on her bed and raging as only a woman scorned can rage. Of late she had noted, and especially since the death of her father, that Kyles was not so attentive as he had been. Now she learned that he was engaged to Donna Maria Guzman, when he had explicitly stated to her that he did not care for that lady. Apparently it was the money he was after, and this thought made the jealous heart of Maud burn within her. She loved Kyles, and would have sacrificed a thousand cousins to make him her husband. That could be done, she thought, if she recovered her fortune by getting Herries hanged. And if he was arrested he certainly would be hanged, therefore she was quite willing to give half a year's income to bring about this result. All that day and the next she lay in bed, denying herself to everyone, longing for news. Late in the afternoon of the day following Gowrie's visit, she received a wire from Anderfield, sent by the old man. "Herries arrested," ran the wire, "he was already married." "Married," said Maud to herself, smiling cruelly, "his honeymoon will be spent in gaol, and will end on the gallows." CHAPTER XVII MAUD'S INHERITANCE There was a lull in the political and social worlds when Herries was captured. The newspapers had said all that they could say regarding past events, and nothing especial was happening worth prattling about. The "Marsh Inn" case, with its strong element of mystery and its spice of romance, proved to be a godsend in the way of "copy." Consequently, hordes of eager reporters poured into Tarhaven, whither Inspector Trent had conducted his prisoner after the arrest at Anderfield in Bucks. The facts that Herries was Sir Simon's nephew--for the late knight was no unimportant figure in the commercial-millionaire world--that he had inherited fifty thousand a year, and that he had been taken by the police, when issuing from the village church immediately after his marriage, made the whole case immensely interesting. Also the mystery of the murder lifted it out of the category of ordinary crime. It was well-known that the prisoner declared himself to be innocent, and everyone wondered what possible defence he could make.