"Oh yes," said Orchard calmly. "I believe that Mr. Alpenny murdered Colonel Hall to get a certain necklace." "That cannot be true," said Beatrice aghast; "a Major Ruck----" "I don't know him," interpolated Orchard. "Well, he says that Colonel Hall gave the necklace to my mother." "And who was your mother, miss?" "Mrs. Hedge----" "Who married Mr. Alpenny?" cried Orchard, rising suddenly to his feet and really startled out of his mildness. "Yes. Mr. Alpenny is now dead, and----" "I know--I know," said Orchard, waving his hand; "he met with the due reward of his wickedness. I can talk of him later, and I'll tell you why I suspect him. Mrs. Hedge's daughter--the Colonel's child----" "What?" cried Beatrice, springing to her feet. "Mr. Alpenny never told you, I suppose," said Orchard coolly; "but he married Mrs. Hall, who took the name of Mrs. Hedge because she was suspected of being concerned in the crime. You are Miss Hall--Miss Beatrice Hall!" CHAPTER XIV MRS. SNOW'S PAST Beatrice waited to hear no more. As a sensible woman, she should have remained where she was to question the old shepherd, and learn why he stated so firmly that she was the daughter of Colonel Hall who had been murdered so cruelly at the Grange; but the mere fact of the announcement startled her, and without pausing, she rushed away, as though to escape from her thoughts. Orchard looked after her in mild surprise, but did not call her back, although her action must have puzzled him. The ex-butler seemed to have outlived all curiosity, or else the Downs had cured his nerves so thoroughly that he did not feel startled. However, be this as it may, he returned to his dinner, and sat watching the slowly-moving sheep without giving a thought to the young lady who had called upon him. How Beatrice descended the slope of the Downs into the valley she never knew. Her brain was filled with the information she had so strangely gained. She was not Beatrice Hedge, but Beatrice Hall, the daughter of the dead man who had owned the necklace. Ruck asserted that the Colonel had given the necklace to his wife before the murder. As Mrs. Alpenny, who called herself Mrs. Hedge and who really was Mrs. Hall, had been the wife of the Colonel, this was not unlikely. Alpenny, finding that she possessed the necklace, might have married her to gain possession of the same. But what Beatrice could not understand was, why her mother should have married the usurer. It was true that he had always been her admirer, as Durban himself had stated; but from accepting attentions to marrying the man who paid them, was a long step. Mrs. Hall had taken it, under the name of Mrs. Hedge, and again Beatrice wondered what the reason could be.