"In any case," added Trenchard, "it seems there is no help for it now."
Mr. Wilding shrugged his shoulders, but otherwise dissembled his vexation. Up the passage floated the constable's voice calling them.
Side by side they moved down, and side by side they stepped once more into the presence of Christopher Monk and his associates.
"Sirs, you have not been in haste," was the Duke's ill-humoured greeting.
"We have tarried a little that we might make an end the sooner," answered Trenchard dryly, and this was the first indication he gave Mr. Wilding of how naturally--like the inimitable actor that he was--he had slipped into his new role.
Albemarle waved the frivolous rejoinder aside. "Come, Mr. Wilding," said he, "let us hear what you may have to say. You are not, I take it, about to urge any reasons why these rogues should not be committed?"
"Indeed, Your Grace," said Wilding, "that is what I am about to urge."
Blake and Richard looked at him suddenly, and from him to Trenchard; but it was only Ruth whose eyes were shrewd enough to observe the altered demeanour of the latter. Her hopes rose, founded upon this oddly assorted pair. Already in anticipation she was stirred by gratitude towards Wilding, and it was in impatient and almost wondering awe that she waited for him to proceed.
"I take it, sir," he said, without waiting for Albemarle to express any of the fresh astonishment his countenance manifested, "that the accusation against these gentlemen rests entirely upon the letter which you have been led to believe was addressed to Mr. Westmacott."
The Duke scowled a moment before replying. "Why," said he, "if it could be shown--irrefutably shown--that the letter was not addressed to either of them, that would no doubt establish the truth of what they say--that they possessed themselves of the letter in the interests of His Majesty." He turned to Luttrell and Phelips, and they nodded their concurrence with his view of the matter. "But," he continued, "if you are proposing to prove any such thing, I think you will find it difficult."
Mr. Wilding drew a crumpled paper from his pocket. "When the courier whom they robbed, as they have correctly informed you," said he quietly, "suspected their design upon the contents of his wallet, he bethought him of removing the wrapper from the letter, so that in case the letter were seized by them it should prove nothing against any man in particular. He stuffed the wrapper into the lining of his hat, preserving it as a proof of his good faith against the time when he should bring the letter to its destination, or come to confess that it had been taken from him. That wrapper the courier brought to me, and I have it here. The evidence it will give should be more than sufficient to warrant your restoring these unjustly accused gentlemen their liberty."