But, even here again, doubts were cast upon the matter by some,
especially those who were acquainted with the old gentleman's
proclivities towards raw spirits of the material kind that paid the
lightest of duties in Guernsey.
All these and very many similar matters were discussed by the
Doctor--who disturbed their minds with horrific accounts of homicidal
mania taking possession of apparently innocent souls--and the Senechal
and the Vicar and Stephen Gard, as they sat over their pipes of an
evening in the Doctor's house. But chiefly the great and troublesome
question of "Who?"
They were all of one mind that the matter must be looked into. The
feeling that a danger was loose in the Island, and might at any moment
fall upon any man, woman, or child, was past endurance. The suspicion
that It might be any one of those they met every day was insufferable.
The only difficulty was to decide how to look into it--what to do, and
how.
Each day they feared to hear of some new outrage. But until the
perpetrator was discovered they could do nothing towards his
suppression.
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