Page:GB Lancaster--law-bringer.djvu/217

Rh "No. She couldn't bear him. She never spoke to him if she could help it."

"You do not think she would connive with him against her husband?"

"Never. And I know that Ducane is alive. Otherwise his wife would tell what had happened," said Slicker.

The counsel for the prosecution rose again.

"If Ducane has escaped is it not almost certain that he has done it with the joint aid of Mrs. Ducane and Robison?"

"I don't know."

"The three were together. The remaining two must know what occurred. Therefore, Mrs. Ducane and Robison have acted in conjunction, whether the issue be escape or murder."

Slicker went down, desperate and anxious, to see Tempest grapple with the problem where he had left it. Tempest was asked if it would not be to Robison's interest to shield Jennifer until he himself had the chance to extract from Ducane's study all such evidence as might be damning to his own liberty.

"Possibly. That matter would not affect him once he was caught."

"He is known to hate the police. Might he not keep silence to baffle them?"

"His hate is focussed on Corporal Heriot. To accuse him of connivance would, in these circumstances, be better than silence."

"He knows that connivance has already been suggested. Mrs. Ducane and Corporal Heriot were seen in a canoe on the Lake just before Heriot went up to Lobstick Island."

"Corporal Heriot has been working up a case of fraud against Ducane and the breed Robison for some months. He was not likely to do anything which would thwart his plans there."

"Personal reasons Have been suggested as a reason for that."

"I believe them to be totally untrue."

Cross-examined he told how Jennifer had burnt the evidence which might have enabled Dick to prove his case, and of Dick's anger and disappointment on discovering