But the lad did not go home. He turned off sharp to the left, and entered the churchyard through a side lane. Herrick, now awestruck at his strange experience which he did not understand, ran after him stumbling over the graves. Sidney never fell. He passed swiftly to the old vault of the Carrs. Beside it was a dark body on the ground.
"Stephen! Stephen!" cried the lad, and then sank exhausted beside the body.
Herrick came up thunderstruck at that cry, struck a match and held it close to the ground beside the face of the unconscious man. He started back with an irrepressible cry and let the match fall. It was Stephen Marsh-Carr who was lying there, and he was bleeding from a wound on the back of the head. And beside him, also unconscious, lay the lad who had foreseen the accident.
"Or crime," said Herrick aloud in a shaky voice, "this is the work of Frisco."
Bewildered as Herrick was by the strangeness of this discovery, he had nerve enough to pull himself together and go for assistance. In spite of the lateness of the hour, the Carr Arms was full of labourers drinking and smoking. A number of these came at once to the churchyard when they heard of the accident--for so Herrick put it---and Stephen was carried to his house. Herrick had ascertained before seeking assistance that his friend still lived. Meanwhile Sidney had revived, but was in a drowsy state. "I want to go home," he said. Herrick after whispering him to say nothing of the vision seen in the ink-pot, sent him to Biffstead in charge of the landlord Napper. Then he accompanied the body of his friend to "The Pines." Herrick could not help thinking of it as the body though he knew Stephen still lived. But it was quite probable that he would be an actual corpse before the dawn.
"Mr. Marsh-Carr has met with an accident," was the explanation of the doctor to his helpers, and they went away. But they knew very well that it was no accident, and moreover the presence of Sidney besides the body hinted that another wonderful event had taken place.
"Master Sidney said that his mother was dead," remarked the wiseacres, "and he has found the dead body of Mr. Marsh himself now!"
"Ah! But he will die. Master Sidney, never makes a mistake." And by the next morning a legend had been circulated that the uncanny boy, had foretold the death of the new Squire. When those who called at 'The Pines' heard that Marsh-Carr had lived through the night, they were quite disappointed. It seemed a reflection on Master Sidney. Yet the boy had held his tongue and no one knew really what had happened. In default of the truth then, they took refuge in a fable. There was absolutely no authority for what was said, but Sidney had been found unconscious beside the unconscious Squire. That was enough material out of which to form a wonderful story, and it lost nothing in the telling.