"No. Something speaks through me; I am only the vehicle. I remember
nothing when I come out of my trances."
"Do you know anything about the Turnpike House murder?"
Mrs. Garvey started. "Ah! it was about that crime you have been asking
me--the Jenner tragedy? I know--the man was murdered by his wife. And
what has this piece of gold got to do with it?"
"It belonged to the murderer," Ruth said with a shudder. "It seemed
to me that you spoke in the person of the murderer. You described the
room, its appearance at the time of the crime--the dead body, and
a child holding a knife, and looking on. Then you said you were in
darkness, that you would never be found out, and--oh! you said a lot of
strange things--that the child had a knife in his hand, and that he was
standing over the body," faltered Ruth, thinking she was about to hear
that Neil had killed his father.
Mrs. Garvey shook her head. "It was not the child," she said,
decidedly; "he would not have had those links about him. The man who
killed his father wore them, else I could not have told you what I did.
Where did you find this piece of gold?"
"Under the window of the room in which the crime was committed. What
you say fits in with my own belief that the blow was struck through the
window. You can't remember who you were--in the trance, I mean?"
"No," said the woman gently; "I remember nothing. Find the man to whom
the link belongs. I can give no further or better advice than that."
"That is easier said than done," protested the girl. "How am I to find
the man?"
Mrs. Garvey shook her head. She could give no more information, and she
said so. Moreover, she was exhausted after the effort she had made,
seeing which Ruth took her broken link and returned home more perplexed
than ever; that being the usual frame of mind of those who dabble in
the supernatural. Yet she fully believed what the clairvoyant had told
her; Mrs. Garvey could not possibly have known of the scene in that
bare room immediately after the crime had been committed. Mrs. Jenner
alone could have described it; and she had told it only to Geoffrey
Heron.
Although Miss Cass's thoughts were much taken up with the case, she saw
no way of prosecuting further inquiries. The toy horse in the hands of
the clairvoyant might perhaps have helped her; but, truth to tell, she
had forgotten all about it! Meanwhile she wrote to Geoffrey and related
what had happened. With regard to the clairvoyant, she quite expected
that the hard-headed young man would scoff at her; but, much, to her
surprise, he did not. In place of a letter, the young squire himself
appeared, with full permission from Neil to tell Ruth the reason why
his mother had held her peace. He did not stay at Hollyoaks, but drove
over from his own place.