"Yes, missy, and I believe by a member of the Black Patch Gang; but I do not know who. Listen, missy. I am about to place my life in your hands!" and the man looked cautiously round. "Durban!" she exclaimed, frightened, "are you going to tell me that you were a member of the Gang?" "No, missy, I was not. They tried to get me to join, but being an honest man, I refused. But I held my tongue for your sake. I loved you, and the Gang declared if I told the police about them, that they would kidnap you. Therefore I was silent." "Kidnap me!" cried Beatrice indignantly. "How could they?" "The Gang are very clever, and could do what they wanted to," said Durban drily; "and as Alpenny hated you, he certainly would have put no bar in the way of your being carried off. It was only I who stood between you and this danger." "Oh, Durban, how much I owe you!" "Missy"--he kissed her hand--"you do not owe me so much as I owed your good father, who saved me from being lynched in the States. But we can talk of that afterwards," he added hastily. "Let me go on. I was here on the night of the murder." "You! Why, you went to town?" "I pretended to. But after the warning, Mr. Alpenny intended to bolt, as he feared for his life--that was why he left the note on your table. But I came back here before you returned in the wind and the rain, and looked through the window of the counting-house, in which a light burned. I saw Alpenny lying dead, and knew that the Black Patch Gang had accomplished their vengeance." "Did you meet any one?" "No, I saw no one. Then I entered the counting-house by the secret way, missy." "Is there a secret way, Durban?" "Yes. I found it by chance. See!" Durban advanced to the end of the carriage and touched a spring which was concealed behind the rep hangings. At once there was a creaking noise, and the sheet of galvanised tin, upon which rested the stove, swung aside, to reveal a narrow flight of stone steps. "These," said Durban, "lead along an underground passage into the shrubbery, and from there one can go out by the great gates, or the small one. I entered by this way, as I had a duplicate key of the great gates. I searched for the Obi necklace, and found it by looking everywhere for it. I felt the hangings, and so discovered the pocket. Then I left The Camp and climbed the Downs. On to the neck of the first sheep I could catch, I tied the necklace, and let it stray away." "But why did you do that?" asked Beatrice, astonished.