Mr. Percy was the first who, after a long silence, spoke. "I am
afraid, Hardy, that what Perez says is right, and that we have been
very nearly thrown off the scent by a most transparent trick.
Watched as Ethel must have been, is it probable that she could have
possessed herself of that arrow, and have fastened a strip of her
dress to it, without being noticed? Still more impossible is it
that she could have placed the arrow where we found it. No one
could have passed without noticing it; so unless we suppose that
she was allowed to linger behind every one, which is out of the
question, the arrow could not have been put there by her."
"Too true, Percy," Mr. Hardy said with a sigh, after a short
silence; "it is altogether impossible, and I should call it a
clumsy artifice, were it not that it deceived us all for awhile.
However, there is one comfort; it decides the question as we had
ourselves decided it: Ethel is gone with the larger party to the
south."
Breakfast was continued, but with a very subdued feeling. Hubert
had now finished his, and, being a lad of restless habit, he took
up the arrow which lay beside him, and began toying with it. First
he untied the piece of stuff, smoothed it, and put it into his
pocketbook, while his eyes filled with tears; then he continued
listlessly twisting the arrow in his fingers, while he listened to
the conversation around him.
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