The door was suddenly opened and Ruby Sinclair entered. There was a frown which was almost a scowl upon her dark, handsome face. Little Mr. Sarsby seemed suddenly to have become a person of no importance.
"Mr. Deane will excuse me," he said hurriedly, yet with a marked attempt at stiffness. "I have to return the _Times_."
He left the room. Deane looked after him with some surprise.
"What is the matter with your uncle?" he asked the girl.
"He has just heard," she answered, "that a young lady from somewhere or other spent the night out at the tower last night."
Deane looked at her in amazement. "And what business is it of his?" he asked.
"I don't know," brusquely. "As a rule, gentlemen when they're living alone don't have young lady visitors,--not to stay the night, at any rate."
Deane laughed. "The young lady in question," he said, "came to see me on a very important matter. If you heard anything of the storm last night, you would understand that it was scarcely possible for any one to have found her way from the tower to the mainland after the flood-tide was in."
The girl nodded shortly. "It's not my business," she said. "I am glad you came. I wanted to ask you something. Who is this man Rowan who killed my uncle?"
Deane shook his head slowly. "No one knows very much about him," he said. "They were out in South Africa together. It was there, perhaps, that their quarrel, if they had one, started."
"It says in the _Times_ this morning that he has been reprieved. Why?" she asked fiercely. "Why don't they hang him?"
"Because they came to the conclusion," he answered, "that there had been a fight, and that it was not a deliberate murder."
"They ought to have hanged him," she declared. "It was brutal--hideous!"
"You are going to London, are you not?" he asked quietly.
Her eyes flashed. "Yes!" she answered. "I am going. I am afraid it will be too late. All the papers declare that my uncle's possessions were of little value. He has been robbed. I am sure he has been robbed. His letter told me that he would have plenty of money. He would not write and tell me that if he had nothing."
"You will be able to find out," Deane answered, a little coldly.
"I shall find out," the girl declared. "I am going to a good lawyer. He wrote as though he had something in his possession which was worth money. It was for that, I am sure, that this man Rowan tried to kill him. I shall find out all about it when I get there."