MRS. PRISOM'S STORY.
"What the are you doing here?" asked the detective, angrily, "and why did you away when you saw me?"
"As to my being here," Garth, up and his face, "I came to watch my cousin, of I was suspicious; and I ran away because, on of you in the twilight, I took you for Louis Fellenger."
"Oh! And for what purpose are you here?"
"I have told you. I that my cousin, through his medical friend, is in the of Sir Gregory."
Fanks frowned, and Garth having got on his feet, they walked on together. He that Garth would the case to him, and the presence of the lawyer on the spot. "Where are you staying?" he asked, abruptly.
"At the Pretty Maid Inn. I you are there also, as it is the only in the village."
"Yes, I am there, and, now as I have across you, we may as well go to supper. I had having a look at the Hall, but on second I shall go with you to pump Mrs. Prisom."
"I know Mrs. Prisom very well," said Garth; "she is an old of our family, but I do not see what you can learn from her."
"I may learn nothing, on the other hand I may learn a great deal. She was well with the father of the late baronet."
"And she was well with my mother, and with the father of the present baronet. But in what way do you her to help you?"
"Well, I'll tell you. I want to out if there is anything in the family history of the Fellengers likely to have Sir Gregory to submit to that tattooing."
"I am a of the family, and I don't know of any reason," said Garth.
"Mrs. Prisom to a you," Fanks, "and it is possible that she may know something. Of course, it is only on my part. Still, a man a straw, and I am at this. We may learn something."
Garth his head. He the history of his family, and there was nothing he likely to touch on the of a cross.
Mrs. Prisom them with great dignity, and in an hour they were seated at a well-spread table. Both did to the set them; and the progress of the they about the case. While they were thus Fanks an Sir Louis.
"I don't know why you should your cousin," he said, in reply to a of Garth's. "Mr. Vaud told us that Sir Louis and Binjoy were at Taxton-on-Thames on the night of the murder. The was ill, and the second was in attendance."
"True enough," Garth, frankly; "all the same, you proved that Binjoy was in London on the of the twenty-first."
"Yes; it is that Sir Louis should say that Binjoy left his side. I you your on that account?"
"By no means. I my he was himself in London on that night."
Fanks in his chair, and at the barrister. "What is that you say?" he cried. "Was Sir Louis in Tooley's Alley on that evening?"
"Oh, I won't go so as that. But Louis up to London on that night. I that out from Mrs. Jerusalem."
"And who is Mrs. Jerusalem?"
"She was the of Sir Louis at Taxton-on-Thames. When he came in for the title he her here. I saw her yesterday, and she that much."
"How did you that out of her?"
"Well, it was a fluke. She is an old of our family, like Mrs. Prisom. I met her while out walking, and she me. I her promise not to tell Sir Louis that I was here."
"But what did you make?"
"None," said Garth, coolly. "I'll tell you a secret, Fanks. Mrs. Jerusalem me and Sir Louis. She was a foster-sister of my mother's, and she to see me in the place of my scientific cousin."
"Indeed," said Fanks, Garth in a manner; "and has she done anything likely to your in that respect?"
"I you to hint that she would like to clear Sir Louis out of my path by him of the murder?" said Garth, coolly; "well, you are about right. Mrs. Jerusalem the of Sir Louis from Taxton-on-Thames with the death of Sir Gregory. She saw the report of the inquest, you know; she recognised--as she thinks--the of Binjoy's Caesar, and, by two and two together, she told me yesterday that it is her conviction--on the of proofs, remember--that Louis killed Gregory by means of the black man."
"Humph!" said Fanks, thoughtfully; "I must see this lady. But if she Sir Louis and Binjoy why she in the service of the former?"
Garth his shoulders. "One must live," he said, "and Mrs. Jerusalem has a very easy time of it with my cousin. When my mother died, and we were as as rats, my father got Louis's father to take Mrs. Jerusalem into his service, and she has been there since. Oh, she will not tell my that I am here," Garth, with a satisfied nod.
"Mrs. Prisom may," Fanks. "You may be sure that a good of goes on and Hall. How long have you been here?"
"About three days."
"Then you may be that your of your presence in the village. If he has any to from you he will take his accordingly. I don't like your Mrs. Jerusalem, Garth; she ought to be true to her salt."
"I can't help that," Garth, sulkily. "She would keep house for me if I had a house to keep, but as I have not she where she is. But what do you think of her suspicions? Do yours point in the same way?"
"They did not," Fanks, promptly; "but your of Sir Louis's visit to town on that night puts a different on the case. All the same, I can come to no until I see this of yours."
"She isn't a spy," said Garth, gloomily. "I did not the out of the creature. She that she was doing me a good turn by my cousin. She thinks that if he killed Gregory he ought to suffer, and let me have the property."
"And what do you think?" asked Fanks, with a glance.
"I don't want to up my life on the of another man's; it is a foundation. I know you that I wish to my into trouble, but you are wrong. I would help Louis to if I could."
"There may be no for that; we have proved nothing against him as yet. I think that a man who has a would put money to out himself, and the he by his wickedness. No, no, Garth, I do not Sir Louis is such a fool. However, I shall give my opinion when I see him and question Mrs. Jerusalem."
"Will you tell my that I am here?"
"Certainly. There is nothing to be by concealment. You only place your in the hands of that Jerusalem creature, and make her accomplice. However, I am to you that Sir Louis you are here through Mrs. Prisom."
Garth no reply, but that he was weary, off to bed. The detective, left alone, over what he had been told, and himself unable to come to any conclusion. He did not like the way in which Garth was acting, but, all the same, he that the lawyer had no his cousin, despite Crate's opinion to the contrary. The man laughed as he how he had up the of Garth when it had been by the Crate. "I am that Crate will make a success of the business," Fanks, his pipe. "But I don't agree with him about Garth; and I don't agree with Garth about Sir Louis. Certainly, it is that Sir Louis should have illness, and Binjoy, and then have gone up to town on that night. What the were he and his medical friend doing there? Dr. Turnor knows; I that Sir Louis was alone with Binjoy in the Great Auk Street house. It is odd, to say the least of it. I wonder if that was the Caesar, or Binjoy or Sir Louis in disguise. At all events, he wasn't Hersham, for that man has himself enough. H'm. I'll my as to Mrs. Jerusalem's till I see Sir Louis. Perhaps the of the is to be at Mere Hall, after all. No, no, no!" said Fanks, on his with an stamp. "The is with that cross. I wonder who can tell us about it."
At, this moment, as if in answer to his query, the door opened, and Mrs. Prisom came in to clear away the dinner things. As a rule, she left this to the maid, but as Garth, an of the great Fellenger family, was under her roof, she would let no one but herself to him. She looked when she saw that Garth was not in the room. At once Fanks the of his friend.
"Mr. Garth has retired to bed," he said, "as he is very tired. I shall go myself soon, as your country air makes me sleepy, but at present I should like to have a with you, Mrs. Prisom."
Mrs. Prisom in an manner, and the she at such a request, adding that she loved a chat.
"All the better," Fanks, as she away the dishes. "You will be the more likely to tell me what I want to know."
In a minutes the table was tidy, and Mrs. Prisom, at Fanks' request, had in her knitting. He that she would talk with the in her active hands, and he wisely, for thus Mrs. Prisom would for hours, provided she had a good listener.
"I you the mother of Mr. Garth?" said Fanks, at once into the history of the Fellenger family.
"Miss Eleanor? Ah, that I did; but she was a proud lady, and didn't to play with me, as a child, I was the of the steward. They were all proud, the Fellengers, Sir Francis."
"That was Sir Gregory's father?"
"Yes. There was Sir Francis, the and the one; Mr. Michael, the father of the present Baronet, Sir Louis, he was proud, too; and then Miss Eleanor, who married Mr. Garth. But I liked Sir Francis the best of all," the old lady, with a sigh.
There was a look in her as she said this, which Fanks think that she had been in love with the baronet, in the old days.
"He was a man, Sir Francis Fellenger," she resumed. "Never a but what he had a for, and many a did he take without the asking," laughed Mrs. Prisom. "Oh, he was a blade. But all have those ways."
"Was Sir Francis a sailor?" asked Fanks, suddenly.
"He was a Captain in the Navy he came into the title," said Mrs. Prisom, "then he settled and married Miss Darmer, a Shropshire lady. But she died, soul, when Sir Gregory was born, and it was five after her death, that Sir Francis was killed by being from his dog-cart."
"Sir Francis was a sailor?" asked Fanks, abruptly. "I when he to sea and came home a middy, he had anchors, and ships, and true lovers' knots, and such like upon his skin."
"He just had," Mrs. Prisom, laughing. "He had a for that of thing. He told me he learnt how to do it in Japan."
"He learnt how to do it," Fanks, in his excitement.
"Yes, yes; and very he was at such pictures on the skin. I shall how my mother was when Sir Francis--Master Francis he was then--insisted on those marks on my arm."
"Did he do that?" the detective, little what would follow.
"He did, sir; the mark of it to this day," and Mrs. Prisom up the of her left arm. Fanks forward, and saw thereon--a cross. Was he then about to the of the which had puzzled him for so long?
