Gebb continued to question and cross-question Edith until he became thoroughly acquainted with the details of her visit to Miss Gilmar at Grangebury. When in full possession of the facts he permitted her to depart, but took the precaution to ask for her London address in case he should require her further evidence. Edith informed him that since leaving Kirkstone Hall she had been staying with an old schoolfellow in Bloomsbury Square, and was likely to remain there for some time, or at all events until she could find a situation. "I must work, you know, Mr. Gebb," she confessed frankly. "I am very poor." "Yet had you accepted Mr. Alder you would----" "Accept Mr. Alder!" interrupted Edith, colouring. "I would sooner sweep the streets than marry any one but Arthur. Mr. Gebb," she added imploringly, "now that you are convinced of his innocence, do get him out of prison." "I'll do my best," promised the detective. "He will come up for trial in a week or two, but in the mean time if I place the actual facts of the case before the magistrate who committed him, I have no doubt he will be admitted on bail." "Anything--anything, dear Mr. Gebb, so long as he is set free!" The detective proved to be as good as his word, and worked zealously in the interest of Ferris. As the forthcoming trial would probably be a mere matter of form, seeing that the later evidence acquitted him, the magistrate readily accepted bail for a small amount, and, to Edith's astonishment, the person who guaranteed it was Mr. Alder. He came forward in the most friendly way to stand security for his rival, and would not even hear of Edith thanking him when Arthur was released through his generosity. "I knew he was not guilty," said this benefactor to Edith, "and I told Gebb it was a shame keeping an innocent man in prison." "How can we ever thank you?" said Edith, tearfully. "There is no need to thank me, Miss Wedderburn. Of course I should like you to marry me; but as Ferris proves to be the lucky man, I can only make the best of my misfortune." In her own heart Edith could not understand the kindness of Mr. Alder, for up to the present she had always thought him hard-hearted and selfish. Perhaps the succession to the Kirkstone estates had wrought this change, for previous to the death of his cousin the barrister had been in deep water, as Basson frankly told Gebb. "It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good," said the Bohemian lawyer, "and the wretch who killed that old woman put a power of money into Alder's pocket. He isn't the man to live on nothing; and has rather expensive tastes; so, if he hadn't come in for that property, he'd have been in Queer Street. It's truth I'm telling you." To which latter remark Gebb quite assented, as Alder had rather the worn look of a man who lived hard, and made the most of his life. "It's a pity Miss Wedderburn doesn't marry him," he observed. "She might keep him in order. He's a ship that needs an anchor, in my opinion."