I like the way he's taking it. He gave me a message for
you."
"What was it?"
"That you are not to forget your promise."
I smoked on for a few moments in silence.
"I promised him I'd get Miss Vaughan away from that house," I said at
last. "I had Mrs. Royce write her a note, inviting her to stay with
her. I gave it to her this afternoon."
"What did she say?"
"She didn't say anything, but I could see the idea didn't impress her.
And I had thought all along that she would jump at it."
Godfrey gave a little grunt, whether of surprise or satisfaction I
could not tell.
"Why didn't you put her on the stand to-day, Lester?" he asked.
"Afraid of upsetting her?"
"I wouldn't have stopped for that, if her evidence would have helped
Swain. But it would only have put him deeper in the hole."
"In what way?"
"Well, in the first place, she says that as she and her father
returned to the house, she heard footsteps behind them and thought it
was Swain following them, because that would be a natural thing for
him to do; and, in the second place, she saw that blood-stained
handkerchief on the floor beside her father's chair when she came into
the room and found him dead.
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