"Pshaw!" said Rupert, contemptuously. "What is the use of your talking, Carrington? The game's up. We have got you down here to have you arrested."
"You can't arrest me," said the barrister, with an air of bravado. "I shall go at once to Tarhaven and give information against Mallien."
Rupert got between the barrister and the door toward which he was retreating swiftly. "Stop where you are," he commanded. "There will be no need for you to go to Tarhaven. In an hour Inspector Lawson will be here, and then, if you dare, you can lay an information against Mallien."
"Oh!" Carrington winced and grew very white. "This is a trap."
"It is," said Mallien, with malignant satisfaction, "and I have lured you into it. You accuse me, do you? Ha! We'll see what you'll say when the handcuffs are on your wrists."
"Hendle,"--Carrington turned to his former friend with a cry, half of rage and half of fear--"will you stand by and hear this said of me?"
"Why should I interfere?" said Hendle stolidly. "You are only reaping as you have sown. To get money you were prepared to accuse me as you have accused Mallien. And all the time you are the criminal, as we now know."
"I am not!" shouted the miserable man, trembling. "You can't prove that I did the deed."
"I can prove that you came down to Barship on that night," said Tollart.
"And who will take the word of a drunkard?"
Tollart rushed at the barrister and would have struck him, but that Rupert pushed his big body between the two. "Don't lose your temper, Tollart. What does it matter? Carrington will have plenty to do to clear himself without calling anyone silly names. You understand," he added, turning toward the lawyer, "that both Ark and the doctor can swear to your presence in Barship on the night when Leigh was killed. You knew from me about the will and came down to murder the vicar."
"I did not. Even if I had wanted the will, I should not have murdered him."
"Pshaw!" said Rupert again, and pushing his advantage relentlessly, "all this denial will not serve you. Perhaps you may not have intended to murder the vicar when you struck the blow. I will do you that justice. But, as Leigh had a weak heart, you went too far and he died. Then you took the will and buried it under the sundial----"