Part 69 (1/2)
”He said where he had been, and that he was going up to the Hold,”
replied the witness, in tones of palpable hesitation, as if weighing his words.
”You are sure it was Jim Sanders?” asked a very silent magistrate who sat at the end of the bench.
Mr. Apperley opened his eyes at this. ”Sure it was Jim Sanders? Why, of course I'm sure of it?”
”Well, it appears that only you, so far as can be learnt, saw Jim Sanders at all near the spot after the alarm went out.”
”Like enough,” answered the farmer. ”If the boy went to all these places, one after the other, he couldn't be at the Hold. But there's no mistake about my having seen him, and talked to him.”
The danger appeared to be over. The Bench seemed to have no intention of asking further questions of Mr. Apperley, and Nora breathed freely again. But it often happens that when we deem ourselves most secure, hidden danger is all the nearer. As the witness was turning round to retire, Flood, the lawyer, stepped forward.
”A moment yet, if you please, Mr. Apperley. I must ask you a question or two, with the permission of the Bench. I believe you had met Jim Sanders before that, last night--soon after the breaking out of the fire?”
”Yes,” replied the farmer; ”it was at the bend of the road between the Hold and Barbrook. I had that minute caught sight of the flame, not knowing rightly where it was or what it was, and Jim came running up and said, as well as he could speak for his hurry and agitation, that it was in Mr. Chattaway's rick-yard.”
”Agitated, was he?” asked the Bench; and a keen observer might have noticed Mr. Flood's brow contract with a momentary annoyance.
”So agitated as hardly to know what he was saying, as it appeared to me,” returned the witness. ”He went away at great speed in the direction of Barbrook; on his way--as I learnt afterwards--to fetch the fire-engines.”
”And very laudable of him to do so,” spoke up the lawyer. ”But I have a serious question to put to you now, Mr. Apperley; be so good as to attend to me, and speak up. Did not Jim Sanders distinctly tell you that it was Rupert Trevlyn who had fired the rick?”
Mr. Apperley paused in indecision. On the one hand, he was a plain, straightforward, honest man, possessing little tact, no cunning; on the other, he shrank from harming Rupert. Nora's words had left a strong impression upon him, and the mysterious absence of Jim Sanders was also producing its effect, as it was on three-parts of the people in court.
He and they were beginning to ask why Jim should run away unless he had been guilty.
”Have you lost your voice, Mr. Apperley?” resumed the lawyer. ”Did or did not Jim Sanders say it was Rupert Trevlyn who fired the rick?”
”I cannot say but he did,” replied Mr. Apperley, as an unpleasant remembrance came across him that he had proclaimed this fact the previous night to as many as chose to listen, to which incaution Mr.
Flood no doubt owed his knowledge. ”But Jim appeared so fl.u.s.tered and wild,” he continued, ”that my belief is--and I have said this before--that he didn't rightly know what he was saying.”
”Unless I am misinformed, you had just before met Rupert Trevlyn,”
continued Mr. Flood. ”_He_ was wild and fl.u.s.tered, was he not?”
”He was.”
”Were both coming from the same direction?”
”Yes. As if they had run straight from the Hold.”
”From the rick-yard, eh?”
”It might be that they had; 'twas pretty straight, if they leaped a hedge or two.”
”Just so. You were walking soberly along the high-road, on your way to Bluck the farrier's, when you were startled by the apparition of Rupert Trevlyn flying from the direction of the rick-yard like a wild animal--I only quote your own account of the fact, Mr. Apperley. Rupert was pale and breathless; in short, as you described him, he must have been under the influence of some great terror, or _guilt_. Was this so? Tell their wors.h.i.+ps.”
”It was so,” replied Mr. Apperley.
”You tried to stop him, and you could not; and as you stood looking after him, wondering whether he was mad, and, if not mad, what could have put him into such a state, Jim Sanders came up and told you a piece of news that was sufficient to account for any amount of agitation--namely, that Rupert Trevlyn had just set fire to one of the ricks in the yard at the Hold.”
It was utterly impossible that Mr. Apperley in his truth could deny this, and a faint cry broke from the lips of Mrs. Chattaway. But when Mr. Flood had done with the farmer, it was Mr. Peterby's turn to question him. He had not much to ask him, but elicited the positive avowal--and the farmer seemed willing to make as much of it as did Mr.