"The lock-up, sir?"

"To the lock-up. Do you know, Mrs. Chivers, that Jonas Kink is
dead, and that very strong suspicions attach to Matabel, that she
killed him?"

"Matabel killed him!"

"Yes, with that very stone."

CHAPTER XLV.

IN HOPE.

When the surgeon, on his return from the Punch-Bowl was called in
to see Mehetabel, he at once certified that she was not in a
condition to be removed, and that she would require every possible
attention for several days.

Accordingly, James Colpus allowed her to remain at the Dame's School,
but cautioned Betty Chivers that he should hold her responsible for
the appearance of Mehetabel when required.

Jonas Kink was not dead, as Colpus thought when lifted out of the
kiln into which he had been precipitated backwards, but he had
received several blows on the head which had broken in the skull
and stunned him. Had there been a surgeon at hand to relieve the
pressure on the brain, he might perhaps have recovered, but there
was none nearer than Godalming; the surgeon was out when the
messenger arrived, and did not return till late, then he was
obliged to get a meal, and hire a horse, as his own was tired, and
by the time he arrived at the Punch-Bowl Jonas had ceased to
breathe, and all he could do was to certify his death and the
cause thereof.

Mehetabel's nature was vigorous and elastic with youth. She
recovered rapidly, more so, indeed than Mrs. Chivers would allow
to James Colpus, as she was alarmed at the prospect of having to
break to her that a warrant was issued against her on the charge
of murder.

When she did inform her, Mehetabel could not believe what she was
told.

"That is purely," she said. "I kill Jonas! If he had touched me and
tried to take baby away I might have done it. I would have fought
him like a tiger, as I did before."

"When did you fight him?"

"In the Moor, by Thor's Stone, over the gun--there when the shot
went off into his arm."

"I never knew much of that, though there was at the time some talk."

"Yes. I need say nothing of that now. But as to hurting Jonas, I
never hurted nobody in my life save myself, and that was when I
married him. I don't believe I could kill a fly--and then only if
it were teasin' baby."

"There is Joe Filmer downstairs, has somethin' to say. Can he come
up?"

"Yes," answered Mehetabel. "He was always kind to me."

The ostler of the Ship stumbled up the stairs and saluted the sick
girl with cord