This was all the boy had to tell.
Mr. Larkspur dismissed the messenger, having faithfully paid him the
stipulated half-crown, and immediately sought the presence of Lady
Eversleigh. The realization of all her fears shocked her deeply, and in
the solemnity of the dread event which had occurred she almost lost
sight of her own purpose, it seemed swallowed up in a calamity so
appalling. But Mr. Larkspur was of a tougher and more practical
temperament. He lost no time in setting before his client the state of
the case as regarded herself, and the purpose with which she had gone
to Frimley, now rendered futile. Mr. Larkspur entertained no doubt that
Carrington had been in some way accessory to the death of Lionel Dale,
but circumstances had so favoured the criminal that it would be
impossible to prove his crime.
"If I told you all I know about the horse and about the man," said Mr.
Larkspur, "what good would it do? The man bought a horse very like Mr.
Dale's, and he rode away from here mounted on that horse, on the same
day that Mr. Dale was drowned. I believe he changed the horses in Mr.
Dale's stable; but there's not a tittle of proof of it, and how he
contrived the thing I cannot undertake to say, for no mortal saw him at
the rectory or at the meet; and the horse that every one would be
prepared to swear was the horse that Mr. Dale rode, is safe at home at
the rectory now, having evidently been in the river.
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