Then he had me in the study and
together we went through the stuff we'd brought away. He made me keep what
Murchison had done me out of, and the rest he made into a packet, addressed
ready for posting and left it on the table.
"'For anything else that may happen, Dick,' he said, 'we must take our
chance. I have had my suspicions of that man Murchison for a long time. My
own opinion is that we shall hear nothing more about the matter.'"
Nora turned and looked at her companion with big, startled eyes.
"But it was Jake Hannaway," she exclaimed, "whom they accused of making a
row!"
He stopped her, without impatience but firmly.
"Jake Hannaway died the next day," he said. "I must have hit him harder
than I thought--or Jocelyn did! He had no relatives, no friends. Murchison
put the whole trouble down to him, admitted that there was a row over a
game of cards, and a free fight. The other two swore to exactly the same
story. Our names--mine and Jocelyn's, were never brought in. Murchison
never came near me again. I have never seen him since. That's the whole
story."
"What about the police examination?" she asked curiously. "I know no more
than you do," he replied. "I expect Murchison had a pull, and he was
terrified of Jocelyn Thew.
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