Professor Young knocked at the Skinner hut. Tess smiled at him from between the tatters of the curtain, and unlocked the door, standing, as her friend took the wooden rocker.
"Daddy air a-comin' home," she breathed timidly.
"Soon. Sit down, child. I have much to say to you.... We have discovered the murderer of the gamekeeper. We have positive proof that it was not your father."
Tess squatted on the floor, crossed her legs, and waited.
"Who were it?" she asked presently, as if afraid to speak.
"Ben Letts."
"The damn bloke!" she ejaculated, a dangerous light gathering in her eyes. "And he were a-lettin' Daddy be hung for his own dirty work! He air a wicked cuss, he air!"
"Ezra Longman saw him when he committed the murder," Young told her, watching the interest gather in the eager face. "Letts used your father's gun. That accounts for his having been accused."
Tess nodded her head.
"Ezy were here last night," she commented quietly. "He were sick."
"He was under my care for a long time," explained Young, "and last night escaped and walked home through the rain.... He is dead."
"Dead!" gasped Tess. "Dead!"
Impetuously she bent toward him, and finished: "Ezy Longman ain't dead!"
"Yes, he is," replied Young. "He died in his father's hut, last night. I have just left there, and I feel heartily sorry for them both."
"Myry?... Did ye see Myry?"
"She's gone with Ben Letts."
"Gone where?"
"We don't know, but the officers are looking for them. I think the boy heard me tell the nurse that he would be held as a witness in your father's next trial. He must have warned Letts upon his arrival home, for--"
"He knowed Myry loved Ben," broke in Tess.
"That's what I thought," Young answered. "I found Longman and the mother mourning over the boy. They hope to hear from the girl soon."
"If Myry and Ben was in the storm last night--" began Tess.
"They may be dead," ended Young gravely. "Myra took her child with her. I found this note on the dead boy's bed, and brought it away with me. I would have liked to have put the boy on the witness-stand. Nevertheless, I hope to release your father on the evidence I have, without a trial."