Eric, standing with his back to the mantelshelf, revealed to me a fact
that was both extraordinary and startling.
"After you'd left Ryhall yesterday," he said, "I was walking across the
park to meet Cynthia, who'd gone out to pay a visit to that thin old
parson's wife over at Waltham, when, quite unexpectedly, I came across
Ellice standing talking to a rather badly-dressed young woman. She was
in shabby black, with a brown straw hat trimmed with violets, and an old
fur tippet around her neck. They were under a tree a little aside from
the by-path that leads across to Waltham, and were speaking excitedly.
I was walking on the grass and they did not hear me approach. Suddenly
she made some statement which caused him to hesitate and think. Then he
gave her some money hurriedly from his pocket, and after a further
conversation they parted, she proceeding towards the high road, while
Winsloe went in the direction of the house. I followed at a respectable
distance, and that afternoon, when we assembled in the hall for tea, he
announced that he had been suddenly recalled to town. In this I
suspected something, so when he left by the seven-thirty-five express I
followed him here."
"Well?" I asked, looking straight into his face.
"Well, he's in search of Tibbie."
"Of Tibbie! What does he know?"
"That woman who met him in the park told him something. She probably
knew of your appointment."
"Why?"
"Because this morning he went to Harker's Hotel in Waterloo Road, and
inquired for her. But you had very fortunately taken her away."
"Then if he knows of our appointment he will certainly follow me!" I
said, in utter amazement.
"Most certainly he will. You recognise the grave peril of the
situation?"
"I do," I said, for I saw that Sybil must at once be seriously
compromised. "But who could have known our secret? Who was the woman?"
"I've never seen her before. She's an entire stranger. But that she is
aware of Tibbie's movements is beyond doubt. You were evidently seen
together when you met last night--or how would he know that she slept at
Harker's Hotel?"
I was silent. I saw the very serious danger that now lay before us.
Yet why was this man in search of Tibbie? He had proposed to her, she
had said, and had been refused.
I recalled to my companion the fact of the photograph of the dead man
being found in his bag.
"Yes," Eric said. "He has recognised the victim but has some secret
motive in remaining silent. Is it, I wonder, a motive of revenge?"
"Against whom?"