Natalie handed the letter to her aunt, and pointed to the sentence which asserted Turlington’s guilty knowledge of the attempt on Sir Joseph’s life.  In silent horror the two women looked at each other, recalling what had happened earlier in the evening, and understanding it now.  The servant roused them to a sense of present things, by entering on the narrative of his discoveries in the village.

The place was all astir when he reached it.  An old man—­a stranger in Baxdale—­had been found lying in the road, close to the church, in a fit; and the person who had discovered him had been no other than Launce himself.  He had, literally, stumbled over the body of Thomas Wildfang in the dark, on his way back to his lodgings in the village.

“The gentleman gave the alarm, miss,” said the servant, describing the event, as it had been related to him, “and the man—­a huge, big old man—­was carried to the inn.  The landlord identified him; he had taken lodgings at the inn that day, and the constable found valuable property on him—­a purse of money and a gold watch and chain.  There was nothing to show who the money and the watch belonged to.  It was only when my master and the doctor got to the inn that it was known whom he had robbed and tried to murder.  All he let out in his wanderings before they came was that some person had set him on to do it.  He called the person ‘Captain,’ and sometimes ‘Captain Goward.’  It was thought—­if you could trust the ravings of a madman—­that the fit took him while he was putting his hand on Sir Joseph’s heart to feel if it had stopped beating.  A sort of vision (as I understand it) must have overpowered him at the moment.  They tell me he raved about the sea bursting into the church yard, and a drowning sailor floating by on a hen-coop; a sailor who dragged him down to hell by the hair of his head, and such like horrible nonsense, miss.  He was still screeching, at the worst of the fit, when my master and the doctor came into the room.  At sight of one or other of them—­it is thought of Mr. Turlington, seeing that he came first—­he held his peace on a sudden, and then fell back in convulsions in the arms of the men who were holding him.  The doctor gave it a learned name, signifying drink-madness, and said the case was hopeless.  However, he ordered the room to be cleared of the crowd to see what he could do.  My master was reported to be still with the doctor, waiting to see whether the man lived or died, when I left the village, miss, with the gentleman’s answer to your note.  I didn’t dare stay to hear how it ended, for fear of Mr. Turlington’s finding me out.”

Having reached the end of his narrative, the man looked round restlessly toward the window.  It was impossible to say when his master might not return, and it might be as much as his life was worth to be caught in the house after he had been locked out of it.  He begged permission to open the window, and make his escape back to the stables while there was still time.  As he unbarred the shutter they were startled by a voice hailing them from below.  It was Launce’s voice calling to Natalie.  The servant disappeared, and Natalie was in Launce’s arms before she could breathe again.