et know my brother's horse--black with a white star.
Colonel Dick, they've got hold of the wrong end of some damned rigmarole
or other--"

"I didn't know the horse, sir," replied Wilson, not without gentleness,
"for I've been out of the county for a long time, and your brother used
to ride a bay. But I knew your brother, sir."

"That's what I said, too, Fair," groaned Colonel Churchill from the
steps. "I said it was all a damned mistake. But I was wrong. You listen
to Edward. Edward, tell him all!"

"Yes, Dick. It is true, Fair, damnably, devilishly true. He had been
dead for hours, Fair."

"Joe White's something of a doctor, sir," put in Wilson. "Joe said he
would have been lying there since before the storm."

Fairfax Cary drew a gasping breath "Lying there, suffering, through the
storm and darkness? Thrown? Ill and fallen from his horse? Major Edward,
don't play with me!" He started up. "Where is he now?"

"We left him there, sir, just as he was, with Joe White to guard him. My
son, he undertook to rouse the nearest people. I happened to know, sir,
that the sheriff was staying overnight near Red Fields, and I sent him
there first. I told the coroner myself, and then I came as hard as I
could ride to Greenwood, where I heard that you were here--"

"It was thought best not to move him at once, Fair. They are intelligent
men, and they were right." The Major's hand closed around the other's
wrist. "He did not suffer, Fair. He was not thrown. He was shot--shot
through the heart!"

"And there, by God," came from the steps Colonel Dick's deep voice,
"there, at least, there's something to be done! But oh, my poor boy, my
poor boy!"

Unity came from the doorway, took her lover's hands, and pressed them to
her lips. "Fair," she whispered, "Fair!"

He kissed her on the forehead. "There, dear! We won't sit under the
catalpa tree this morning. Eli! get the horses."

"They have been ordered, Fair," said the Colonel. "We'll go together,
you and Edward and I."

The little rocky strand above the stream upon the river road lay half in
sun and half in shade. After the storm the air was crystal. Birds sang
in the forest trees, and the stream laughed as it slid over ledges into
deep pools. The sky was blue, the day brilliant, a cool wind rustled
through the laurels, and the wet earth sent out odours of mould and
trodden leaf. Perhaps a score of men and boys, engaged in excited talk
and in as close a scrutiny of one quiet f