"No. I have heard nothing."
"And," he said, "I suppose if you did hear, you would not tell me?"
"That is my own affair, Mr. Shrimpton," she replied resentfully. "If you desire to arrest Mr. Henfrey it is your own affair. Why do you ask me to assist you?"
"In the interests of justice," was the inspector's reply.
"Well," said the girl, very promptly, "I tell you at once that I refuse to assist you in your endeavour to arrest Mr. Henfrey. Whether he is guilty or not guilty I have not yet decided."
"But he must be guilty. There was the motive. He shot the woman who had enticed his father to his death."
"And how have you ascertained that?"
"By logical deduction."
"Then you are trying to convict Mr. Henfrey upon circumstantial evidence alone?"
"Others have gone to the gallows on circumstantial evidence--Crippen, for instance. There was no actual witness of his crime."
"I fear I must allow you to continue your investigations, Mr. Shrimpton," she said coldly.
"But your lover has deceived you. He was staying down in Surrey with the girl, Miss Lambert, as his fellow-guest."
"I know that," was Dorise's reply. "But I have since come to the conclusion that my surmise--my jealousy if you like to call it so--is unfounded."
"Ah! then you refuse to assist justice?"
"No, I do not. But knowing nothing of the circumstances I do not see how I can assist you."
"But no doubt you know that Mr. Henfrey evaded us and went away--that he was assisted by a man whom we know as The Sparrow."
"I do not know where he is," replied the girl with truth.
"But you know The Sparrow," said the detective. "You admitted that you had met him when I last called here."
"I have met him," she replied.
"Where does he live?"
She smiled, recollecting that even though she had quarrelled with Hugh, the strange old fellow had been his best friend. She remembered how the White Cavalier had been sent by him with messages to reassure her.
"I refuse to give away the secrets of my friends," she responded a trifle haughtily.
"Then you prefer to shield the master criminal of Europe?"
"I have no knowledge that The Sparrow is a criminal."
"Ask the police of any city in Europe. They will tell you that they have for years been endeavouring to capture Il Passero. Yet so cleverly is his gang organized that never once has he been betrayed. All his friends are so loyal to him."
"Yet you want me to betray him!"
"You are not a member of the gang of criminals, Miss Ranscomb," replied Shrimpton.