s. He had hoped that the sharing of the bad news with his partner would bring some relief to him, but his anxieties were still there. He was always seeing that queer, sinister look in Kitely's kno

d and buried, and his secret with him; he wished that it had been anywise possible to have crushed the life out of him where he sat in that easy chair as soon

room, and always thinking-thinking of the terrible danger of revelation. And always, as an under-current, he was saying that for himself he cared naught-Kitely could do what he liked, or would have done what he liked, had there only been himself to think for. But-Lettie! All his life was now centred in her, and in her happiness, and Lettie's happiness, he knew, was centred in the man she was going to marry.

hair as if the arresting hand of justice had suddenly been laid on him. In spite of himself he r

o be taken like that. It won't do!-especially at this turn. W

prised and admonitory, ca

you remember you asked Windle, and his friend Mr. Brereton, to su

le Bent had an old school-friend, a young barrister from London, staying with him, and that both had been asked to supper that evening at Cotherstone's

d. "I've been very busy. All right, Lett

king up his office; he went slowly away through the town. Nothing could have been further from his wishes than a desire to entertain compa

re and there. At the foot of this hill, certain plots of building land had been sold, and Mallalieu had bought one and Cotherstone another, and on these they had erected two solid stone houses, fitted up with all the latest improvements known to the building trade. Each was proud of his house; each delighted in welcoming friends and acquaintances t

urned up this evening-and as it is, I shall have to run away for an hour after supper-can't be helped. How do you do, sir?" he we

s an excellent specimen of the business man of action, who had ideas out of the common but was not so much given to deep and quiet thinking as to prompt doing of things quickly decided on. He glanced from one to the other, mentally comparing them. Bent was a tall, handsome man, blonde, blue-eyed, ready of word and laugh; Brereton, a medium-sized, compact fellow, dark of hair and eye, with an olive complexion that almost suggested foreign origin: the sor

Brereton since he got down yesterday?" aske

is sweetheart. "You didn't know I was raking up everything I could get hold of about my forbears,

tion to start in his chair; he himself was

My tenant? What does he know

of an antiquary, and that sort of thing. The Town Clerk tells me Kitely's been through nearly all the old town documents-chests full of them! And Kitely told me one day that if I liked

his plate while Bent was talking;

cernedly. "Ah!-then you'll have been

e the result of his work now and then-things

otherstone, more for the sake of talking than f

ved Brereton, slyly. "He thinks the original Bent came over with the

pedigree, why not have it properly searched out? He's a keen old hand at that sort of thing, Kitely. The Town C

straight if he were squared by the two partners. But it also proved that Bent would probably believe anything that Kitely might tell him. Certainly Kitely must be dealt with at once. He knew too much, and was obviously too clever, to be allowed to go about unfettered. Cost what it might, he must be attache

t any rate-can't be helped. Lettie, you must try to amuse 'em until I come back. Sing Mr. Brereton some of

than an hour, fat

" replied Cotherstone, "maybe less-I'll

folk call family pride, was he? Actually proud of the fact that he had a pedigree, and could say who his grandfather and grandmother were?-things on which most people were as hazy as they were indifferent. In that case, if he was really family-proud, all the more reason why Kitely should be made to

red that he glanced at the old grandfather clock in his hall when he let himself in. All was very quiet in there; he opened the drawing-room door to find t

ying, "that there are no end of undiscovered crimes-there are

said Cotherstone, going forward to the

teresting stories about criminals," said

h," said Cotherstone hospitably. "Come away, gentlemen, and we

bringing out some boxes of cigars from a cupboard while

sir?" observed Cotherstone as he offered Br

swered Brereton, with a quiet laugh. "One sort of

of whisky and soda which Bent had mixed for him. "Somebody running hurriedly up the dri

e of some visitor, whose voice was heard in eag

ghbour-Mr. Garth

oor. A youngish, fresh-coloured man, who looked upset and st

e said. "I say!-that old gentleman you

demanded Coth

oming through there just now," replied Garthwaite. "He-don't be frighte

Cotherstone. "What

rthwaite. "I-yes, I just saw enough t