Thus the telegraphic message was sent to Roy Henning.
When Smithers had recovered from his fright sufficiently to be able to talk sensibly, Beecham and Shealey plied him with questions about the accident. He said, substantially:
"We were at the other end of the forest path when the storm came up--Stockley and I. We took shelter in the cave for some time until the water began to flow in from above and drove us out. Then we made for home. It was very dangerous. Sticks and limbs were flying in all directions. We had passed the big oak by about thirty feet when Stockley was struck by a piece of a branch about four feet long and as thick as your arm. It hit him on the arm and on the chest or side. He fell with a scream. At that moment there came a brilliant flash, and a bolt of lightning struck quite close to us, blinding me for a few seconds. I was about ten feet ahead of Stockley when it came. I was so frightened I thought I would go crazy. When I could see again I saw the oak tree falling right where he was lying. I never was so frightened in my life. Then I ran home, believing he was killed. I don't remember how I got down the hill, or what I said after."
"Will you answer me one question, Smithers?" asked Beecham.
"When the accident happened were you two talking about Henning and the robbery last Christmas?"
"Yes," he answered, "we were. I'm sorry now I had anything to do with it."
"With what?" asked Beecham with a nervous start. Foolish fellow. He was not cool enough. The other fellow took immediate alarm.
"Oh, nothing!" and he refused to say anything more, and walked away.
"That was too bad," said Beecham to himself, very much chagrined. "If I had been a little more diplomatic I might have wormed out of him all he knew of the matter."
Now Jack was indeed sorely puzzled. Did Smithers mean that he was sorry that he had talked to Stockley about it, or did he mean that he was now, under the influence of a great fright, sorry that he had participated in the robbery?
Beecham sat a long time on a bench tilted against the wall, disconsolate and severely bringing himself to task.
"Here am I," he said, "with conceit enough to imagine I have brains enough to become a lawyer, and at the very first opportunity for an important cross-questioning I make a decided goose of myself. Pshaw! I wish some one would kick me! I deserve it!"