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I just wanted to be sure that you'd done it and then for you to go away and never see any of us again." Olva smiled. "Yes," he said. "But it wasn't until the 5th of November the 'rag' night that I was quite sure. I knew then, when I saw you hitting that fellow, that you'd killed Carfax. But, of course, that wasn't proof. Then I noticed Bunning.
"I don't know," said Bunning, still very husky, "If a man's a fool he gets rotted. That's natural enough. I've always been rotted all my life. I used to think it was because people didn't understand me now I know that it really is because I am an ass." Strangely, suddenly, some of the burden that bad been upon Olva now for so long was lifted.
"I shouldn't have thought," Craven answered slowly, "that anything ever upset you; I shouldn't have thought you had any nerves. And, in any case, I didn't know you had thought twice about the Carfax business." Olva turned on the electric light. At the same moment there was a loud knock on the door. Craven opened it, showing in the doorway a pale and flustered Bunning.
He saw now that it was the Pursuer Himself who had instigated it. With that confession the grey shadow had drawn nearer, had made one degree more certain the ultimate capitulation. For Bunning was surely the last person to be told with every hour that became clearer. There were now about four weeks before the end of term.
How could I? and one day I'll come back " Bunning moved away, his head banging. "You must think me an awful fool of course you do. I am, I suppose. I'd be awful to be with for long at a time of course I see that. But I don't know what to do. If I go home and tell them I'm not going to be a parson it'll be terrible. They'll all be at me. Not directly.
"You're going away?" "I don't know it depends." "I don't know what I should do if you went. To have to stand that awful secret all alone . . . only me knowing. Oh! I couldn't! I couldn't! and now that Craven " "Craven knows nothing. He doesn't even suspect anything. See here, Bunning" Olva crossed over to him and put his hand on his shoulder.
"Don't be such a blooming fool. Take off your gown if you're going to stop." Bunning meekly took off his gown. His spectacles seemed so large that they swallowed up the rest of his face; the spectacles and the enormous flat-toed boots were the principal features of Bunning's attire. He sat down again and gazed at Olva with the eyes of a devoted dog. Olva looked at him.
It was evident that Bunning was unhappy; he looked as though he had not slept; his face was white and puffy, his eyes dark and heavy. He was paying no attention to the "Huns," but was trying, obviously, to catch Olva's eye. As the reading progressed Olva became more and more uneasy. It showed the things that must be happening to his nerves.
It never occurred to me before, but during that time my missis may have been out of the place for a few minutes or so, to fetch the supper beer, sir." "To be sure! Now where does Mrs. Bunning get your supper beer?" "At the Chancellor Vaults, sir round the corner." Meeking turned quietly to the Coroner. "I think we ought to have Mrs. Bunning's evidence," he remarked.
Olva, knowing what his own loneliness was, and the terror of it, understood. A fortnight ago he would have hated the scene, have sent Bunning, with a cutting word, flying from the room, never to return. "I say, Bunning, you mustn't carry on like this you're overdone or something. Besides, I don't understand. What does it matter if you have grown to distrust Med-Tetloe and all that crowd.
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