Besides, the man says you were there. Now, tell me this,
and I will let you go free: who has the key of the grating over the mouth
of the old Red Hand?'
'Oh! Dickie, my boy, my poor boy--why don't you answer?' sobbed Mrs.
Haddon.
The detective tried again, threatened, pleaded, and cajoled, and Mrs.
Haddon used all her motherly artifices; but not one word came from the
boy's locked lips. Dick was possessed by a vivid hallucination; he seemed
to be standing in the centre of a whirlwind. Downy and his mother were
dim figures beyond, seen through the dust; and like shreds of paper
whirled in the vortex, visions of Miss Chris's face, netted in fair hair,
passed swiftly before his eyes, and the expression on each face was
beseeching and sorrowful. Nothing could have dragged the truth from him
at that moment.
Downy stood up and hung over Dick, scratching his head in a despairing
way.
I'm sorry, ma'am,' he said, 'but I'll have to take him.'
'He's shieldin' some villain,' moaned Mrs. Haddon.
The detective took the widow aside and whispered with her for a few
minutes, with the result that she dried her eyes and was much consoled.
Dick was taken away in Manager Holden's trap and lodged in gaol at
Yarraman; and when the news leaked out, as it did towards evening, Waddy
had a new sensation, and quite the most startling one in its experience.
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