The girl’s eyes flashed viciously.  She tossed the cigarette into the fire-place and straightened herself.

“That’s the low, dirty scoundrel who committed the murder,” she exclaimed.  “He ought to be in the dock—­not Fred.”

“Was Fred up there that night?” asked Kemp.

“Up where?”

“At Riversbrook, or whatever they call it.”

“Yes.”

“He told me he didn’t go.”

“It’s because he was up there that the police have arrested him,” said the girl.  “Hill gave him away.  Oh, he’s a double-dyed villain, is Hill.  And so quiet and respectable looking with it all!  He used to let me in when I went to Riversbrook, and let me out again, and pocket the half-crowns I gave him.  And I like a fool never suspected him once, or thought that he knew anything about Fred coming to the flat.  He didn’t let it out till the night Sir Horace quarrelled with me.  Sir Horace found out about—­about Fred—­and when I went up to see him as usual, he told me that he had finished with me and he called Hill up to show me out.  ’Show this young lady out,’ he said in that cold haughty voice of his, and the wily old villain Hill just bowed and held the door open.  He followed me down stairs and let me out at the side door.  There he said, ’I’ll escort you to the front gate, if you will permit me, miss.  I usually lock the gate about this time.’  I thought nothing of this because he had come with me to the front gate before.  He followed me down the garden path through the plantation till we reached the front gate.  He opened the gate for me and I said ‘Good night, Hill,’ but instead of his replying ’Good night, Miss Fanning,’ as he usually did, he hissed out like a serpent, ’You tell Birchill I want to see him to-morrow, and I’ll come to the flat about 9 o’clock.  Tell him an old friend named Field wants to see him.  Don’t forget the name—­Field!’ Then he locked the gate and was gone before I could speak a word.

“I gave Fred his message next morning—­I wish to God that I hadn’t,” she continued.  “I asked Fred not to keep the appointment, but he insisted on doing so.  He said that he and Field had been good friends in the gaol, and that Field had told him that if he ever got on to anything he would let him know.  He seemed quite pleased at the idea of meeting Field again.  I told him to beware that Field wasn’t laying a trap for him, but he wouldn’t listen to me.

“Sure enough, Field—­or Hill as he calls himself now—­did come over that evening and I let him in myself.  I took him into the sitting-room where Fred was, and I sat down in a corner of the room pretending to read a book so that I could hear what our visitor had to say.  But the cunning old devil whispered something to Fred, and Fred came over to me and asked if I’d mind leaving them alone for half an hour.  I didn’t mind so much because I knew I could get it all out of Fred after Hill had gone.