Thoughts may be free in this room; but I am not going to spread
suspicion outside. I say, though that _might_ have been an accident, it
might have been done by an enemy."
"Did you do it?" retorted Lord Hartledon in his displeasure.
Pike gave a short laugh.
"I did not. I had no cause to harm him. What I'm thinking was, whether
anybody else had. He was mistaken for another yesterday," continued Pike,
dropping his voice. "Some men in his lordship's place might have showed
fight then: even blows."
Percival made no immediate rejoinder. He was gazing at Pike just as
fixedly as the latter gazed at him. Did the man wish to insinuate that
the unwelcome visitor had again mistaken the one brother for the other,
and the result had been a struggle between them, ending in this? The idea
rushed into his mind, and a dark flush overspread his face.
"You have no grounds for thinking that man--you know who I mean--attacked
my brother a second time?"
"No, I have no grounds for it," shortly answered Pike.
"He was near to the spot at the time; I saw him there," continued Lord
Hartledon, speaking apparently to himself; whilst the flush, painfully
red and dark, was increasing rather than diminishing.
"I know you did," returned Pike.
The tone grated on Lord Hartledon's ear. It implied that the man might
become familiar, if not checked; and, with all his good-natured
affability, he was not one to permit it; besides, his position was
changed, and he could not help feeling that it was.
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