ered. "Always tell the truth. It is the proper thing
to do, and it will bring its own reward in the end. Only it is attended
with personal inconvenience at times, such as the present, for instance.
How did Colonel Berrington get here?"

"I will save your sister the trouble of replying," Berrington cried. "I
came here, acting on certain information that had come to my knowledge.
I came here to discover if I could learn some facts bearing on the
disappearance of Sir Charles Darryll's body. And I am not disposed to
think that my efforts are altogether in vain."

It was a bold speech and not without its effect. The woman called Cora
turned a shade paler, and the clean-shaven man by her side winced. The
only one who seemed disposed to a mild course of policy was Bentwood.

"For heaven's sake don't let us have any violence," he said hoarsely.
"There has been too much of that already. I mean there is no necessity
for anything of the kind. If Colonel Berrington knows anything of any of
us----"

"I know everything," Berrington replied. It seemed to him that a bold
course of action was the best to be taken under the circumstances. "For
instance, I have a pretty accurate knowledge of the checkered past of
Dr. Bentwood and the malignant scoundrel who calls himself Carl
Sartoris. Of Miss Mary Sartoris I will say nothing. There are others
here, too, whose past is not altogether wrapped in mystery. There are
General Gastang and Countess de la Moray, for instance. And once I am
outside these walls----"

Sartoris pushed his chair close to the speaker. He was seething with
passionate rage, his face was livid with anger. For the moment he could
do nothing; he only thirsted for the blood of the bold Berrington.

"You are not outside these walls," he said. "You are not likely to be
outside these walls for some time to come. You have described us in
language that you have spared no trouble to render abusive. You know too
much. And we have our own way here of dealing with enemies of ours who
know too much."

There was no mistaking the dreadful threat that underlay the hoarse
speech. There was underground murder in the eyes of Sartoris. Berrington
smiled scornfully.

"I know exactly what you mean," he said; "indeed, I know more than you
give me credit for. And I will make my suspicions certainties."

Berrington advanced swiftly to the table and laid a hand on the sheet
that covered the still, silent form there. Another instant, and t