"Only since you _are_ here and since so much is at stake for me--my son's happiness--I hoped that you might perhaps give us an answer or two which would disperse the doubts of some suspicious people." "Who are they ?" asked Thresk.
"Neighbours of ours," replied Hazlewood, and thereupon Robert Pettifer stepped forward.

He had remained aloof and silent until this moment.

Now he spoke shortly, but he spoke to the point: "I for one." Thresk turned with a smile upon Pettifer.
"I thought so.

I recognised Mr.Pettifer's hand in all this.

But he ought to know that the sudden confrontation of a suspected person with unexpected witnesses takes place, in those countries where the method is practised, before the trial; not, as you so ingeniously arranged it this afternoon, two years after the verdict has been given." Robert Pettifer turned red.