"Well, sir, I was frightened. I felt that there was something dark going on, and I didn't go to bed. I came downstairs and found Mayfield drinking whisky and soda not long before daylight. And his dress slippers were all over dirt. I got hold of Speed's pumps, too, and they were as bad. That told me a story. I made Walters get up, and together we began a search. At the foot of one of the oak trees in the park we found Mr. Ralph. Though it had been raining at the time he left here, his clothes were quite dry, though we found him nearly half a mile from the house. Then I knew quite well that the body had been carried there. The pockets being turned out was only to make it look like robbery. And I taxed Speed with it. I gave him chapter and verse for everything, and he's gone. And, what's more, I know what his game is. I got that from the telegrams he sent and the timetable he left about. He's gone to Weymouth on his way to Jersey. When he reaches Weymouth, he'll charter a fishing boat to take him as far as Jersey. It's no great distance, and for a little time he will be safe there. From Jersey he can easily get across to Granville by a sailing boat." The more Dashwood thought this over the more was he disposed to agree with the old servant. It was good, at any rate, to know that he was no longer likely to suffer at the hands of Mayfield, for that rascal would have to fly also. No doubt Speed had given his fellow-conspirator a hint of what had happened, and that by this time he, too, was on his way to some place of safety. With these thoughts uppermost in his mind, Dashwood walked across the park in the direction of the dower house. It was not yet dark, and Lady Dashwood was walking in the garden. There was a look of peace and happiness on her face that Dashwood had never seen there before. It was, at any rate, a good omen as to the progress of the patient. "I have been having a long talk with Slight," Dashwood explained. "He has been giving me some astounding information. I have been in Longtown all day, and when I came back Speed had vanished. And Slight had afforded very cogent reasons for his disappearance. Only I am utterly in the dark as to why Ralph Darnley has behaved in this way. Slight suggests that you know." "I do," Lady Dashwood smiled. "It is a very pretty story, and I think that even you will be touched when it comes to be told. In the meantime, there is one thing that I will ask you to do--please say nothing to Mary as to who Ralph really is till you have permission." "I can promise that all the more readily because I am not likely to see Mary," Dashwood said in a grieved tone. "The child has behaved very badly to me; she seems to forget that I am her father. So long as she remains in London----"