wound, then, and it's true what they are saying. I thought
it might have been gossip," he muttered, as he pushed the soft dark hair
from the temple. "Any more suspicious marks?" he resumed, taking a rapid
view of the hands and head. "No; nothing but what he'd be likely to get
in the water: but--I'll swear _that_ might have been the blow of a human
hand. 'Twould stun, if it wouldn't kill; and then, held under the
water--"

At this moment Mr. Pike and his comments were interrupted, and he drew
back from the table on which the body was lying; but not before Lord
Hartledon had seen him touching the face of the dead.

"What are you doing?" came the stern demand.

"I wasn't harming him," was the answer; and Mr. Pike seemed to have
suddenly returned to his roughness. "It's a nasty accident to have
happened; and I don't like _this_."

He pointed to the temple as he spoke. Lord Hartledon's usually
good-natured brow--at present a brow of deep sorrow--contracted
with displeasure.

"It is an awful accident," he replied. "But I asked what you were doing
here?"

"I thought I'd like to look upon him, sir; and the butler let me in. I
wish I'd been a bit nearer the place at the time: I'd have saved him, or
got drowned myself. Not much fear of that, though. I'm a rat for the
water. Was that done fairly?" pointing again to the temple.

"What do you mean?" exclaimed Val.

"Well--it might be, or it might not. One who has led the roving life I
have, and been in all sorts of scenes, bred in the slums of London too,
looks on the suspicious side of these things. And there mostly is one in
all of 'em."

Val was moved to anger. "How dare you hint at so infamous a suspicion,
Pike? If--"

"No offence, my lord," interrupted Pike--"and it's my lord that you are
now. Thoughts may be free in this room; but I am not going to spread
suspicion outside. I say, though that _might_ have been an accident, it
might have been done by an enemy."

"Did you do it?" retorted Lord Hartledon in his displeasure.

Pike gave a short laugh.

"I did not. I had no cause to harm him. What I'm thinking was, whether
anybody else had. He was mistaken for another yesterday," continued Pike,
dropping his voice. "Some men in his lordship's place might have showed
fight then: even blows."

Percival made no immediate rejoinder. He was gazing at Pike just as
fixedly as the latter gazed at him. Did the man wish to insinuate that
the unwelcome visitor had again mist