d. But, whether that Glassdale did it all off his own bat or
whether he's somebody in with him, that's where the guilt'll be fastened
in the end, my stepfather says. And--it'll be so. Stands to reason!"

"Anybody come forward about that reward your stepfather offered?" asked
Bryce.

"I'm not permitted to say," answered Sackville. "But," he added, leaning
closer to his companion across the table, "I can tell you this--there's
wheels within wheels! You understand! And things'll be coming out. Got
to! We can't--as a family--let Ransford lie under that cloud, don't you
know. We must clear him. That's precisely why Mr. Folliot offered his
reward. Ransford, of course, you know, Bryce, is very much to blame--he
ought to have done more himself. And, of course, as my mother and my
stepfather say, if Ransford won't do things for himself, well, we must
do 'em for him! We couldn't think of anything else."

"Very good of you all, I'm sure," assented Bryce. "Very thoughtful and
kindly."

"Oh, well!" said Sackville, who was incapable of perceiving a sneer
or of knowing when older men were laughing at him. "It's one of those
things that one's got to do--under the circumstances. Of course, Miss
Bewery isn't Dr. Ransford's daughter, but she's his ward, and we can't
allow suspicion to rest on her guardian. You leave it to me, my boy, and
you'll see how things will be cleared!"

"Doing a bit underground, eh?" asked Bryce.

"Wait a bit!" answered Sackville with a knowing wink. "It's the least
expected that happens--what?"

Bryce replied that Sackville was no doubt right, and began to talk of
other matters. He hung about the club-house until past three o'clock,
and then, being well acquainted with Mary Bewery's movements from long
observation of them, set out to walk down towards Wrychester, leaving
his bicycle behind him. If he did not meet Mary on the way, he meant to
go to the house. Ransford would be out on his afternoon round of calls;
Dick Bewery would be at school; he would find Mary alone. And it was
necessary that he should see her alone, and at once, for since morning
an entirely new view of affairs had come to him, based on added
knowledge, and he now saw a chance which he had never seen before. True,
he said to himself, as he walked across the links and over the country
which lay between their edge and Wrychester, he had not, even now,
the accurate knowledge as to the actual murderer of either Braden or
Collishaw that he