ter rose to the occasion as best he might, issued orders, and
begged all who heard him to obey without question. He and his friend
Travers lifted Mary and carried her to her room. It was her nursery of
old. Here they put her on her bed, and sent Caunter for Mrs. Travers and
Mary's old servant, Jane Bond. She had recovered consciousness before
the women reached her. Then they returned to the dead, and the master of
Chadlands urged those standing on the stairs and in the corridor to go
back to their breakfast and their duties.

"You can do no good," he said. "I will only ask Vane to help us."

Fayre-Michell spoke, while the colonel came forward.

"Forgive me, Sir Walter, but if it is anything psychical, I ask, as a
member--"

"For Heaven's sake do as I wish," returned the other. "My son-in-law
is dead. What more there is to know, you'll hear later. I want Vane,
because he is a powerful man and can help Henry and my butler. We have
to carry--"

He broke off.

"Dead!" gasped the visitor.

Then he hastened downstairs. Presently they lifted the sailor among
them, and got him to his own room. They could not dispose him in a
comely position--a fact that specially troubled Sir Walter--and Masters
doubted not that the doctor would be able to do it.

Henry Lennox started as swiftly as possible for the house of the
physician, four miles off. He took a small motor-car, did the journey
along empty roads in twelve minutes, and was back again with Dr.
Mannering in less than half an hour.

The people, whose visit of pleasure was thus painfully brought to a
close, moved about whispering on the terrace. They had as yet heard no
details, and were considering whether it would be possible to get off at
once, or necessary to wait until the morrow.

Their natural desire was to depart, since they could not be of any
service to the stricken household; but no facilities existed on Sunday.
They walked about in little groups. One or two, desiring to smoke but
feeling that to do so would appear callous, descended into the seclusion
of the garden. Then Ernest Travers joined them. He was important, but
could only tell them that May had disobeyed his father-in-law, slept in
the Grey Room, and died there. He gave them details and declared that in
his opinion it would be unseemly to attempt to leave until the following
day.

"Sir Walter would feel it," he said. "He is bearing up well. He will
lunch with us. My wife tells me that Mary, Mrs.