me close to the clump of furze and stood by the spot where his
wife and the Captain had held their dialogue; he examined the furze as if
searching for a hiding-place, and in doing so discovered the hut. The
latter he walked round and then looked inside; finding it to all seeming
empty, he entered, closing the door behind him and taking his place at
the little circular window against which the boy's face had been pressed
just before.

The Duke had not adopted his measures too rapidly, if his object were
concealment. Almost as soon as he had stationed himself there eleven
o'clock struck, and the slender young man who had previously graced the
scene promptly reappeared from the north quarter of the down. The spot
of assignation having, by the accident of his running forward on the
foregoing night, removed itself from the Devil's Door to the clump of
furze, he instinctively came thither, and waited for the Duchess where he
had met her before.

But a fearful surprise was in store for him to-night, as well as for the
trembling juvenile. At his appearance the Duke breathed more and more
quickly, his breathings being distinctly audible to the crouching boy.
The young man had hardly paused when the alert nobleman softly opened the
door of the hut, and, stepping round the furze, came full upon Captain
Fred.

'You have dishonoured her, and you shall die the death you deserve!' came
to the shepherd's ears, in a harsh, hollow whisper through the boarding
of the hut.

The apathetic and taciturn boy was excited enough to run the risk of
rising and looking from the window, but he could see nothing for the
intervening furze boughs, both the men having gone round to the side.
What took place in the few following moments he never exactly knew. He
discerned portion of a shadow in quick muscular movement; then there was
the fall of something on the grass; then there was stillness.

Two or three minutes later the Duke became visible round the corner of
the hut, dragging by the collar the now inert body of the second man. The
Duke dragged him across the open space towards the trilithon. Behind
this ruin was a hollow, irregular spot, overgrown with furze and stunted
thorns, and riddled by the old holes of badgers, its former inhabitants,
who had now died out or departed. The Duke vanished into this depression
with his burden, reappearing after the lapse of a few seconds. When he
came forth he dragged nothing behind him.

He ret