tting my revolver on his desk for him to guard after he'd
heard all.

He was a lot shocked, of course, and awful sorry to lose Tom Bond; but he
believed every word I told him and knew the facts must be exactly as I
revealed 'em. Then he sent post-haste for the police and a doctor, and I
took 'em to the scene, and men fetched a hurdle and the body of Bond was
brought down to the garage and treated with all due respect. The doctor
examined him then and found he'd been shot through the back at tolerable
close range; and the ball had gone through heart and lung and killed him
instantly. 'Twas dark by now, and Dr. James said as how he'd be back with
another surgeon next morning. But one mighty strange thing increased my
difficulties, because, when we came to hunt for it, the weapon I marked a
foot from the dead man's hand was there no longer. And that meant two
things. It meant, to me, that somebody had been beside Bond after I left
him; and it meant to the police a tidy big question as to whether my word
could be depended upon. Nought was done until the next day and then the
inquest was arranged for and a police inspector spent a long time in my
company and finished by telling me straight that I was in a tolerable
tight place. We knew each other as friends in Little Silver, but the
inspector--Bassett he was called--felt terrible disposed to arrest me, and
only when Sir Walter went bail I wouldn't run away did he abstain from
getting a warrant.

To Joshua Owlet, of course, they went; but there a shocking thing
happened, for the man swore I was lying and that he knew nought about the
affair and that he had never warned me nor nothing like that. He said how
Bond had come to him with his tale about loving Jenny, and he'd only told
him same as he'd told me, that Jenny's duty would lie with her father and
he didn't wish her to marry anybody. So it looked as if the only one who
knew the truth must be the dead man, and he was gone beyond recall. They
found he'd been shot by an army revolver with a ball of the usual pattern,
and more they didn't know; and when Sir Walter pointed out that my
revolver was loaded in all chambers and hadn't been fired, all the police
said was I'd had plenty of time to fire it and clean it and load it again
afore I gave it to him.

And the next thing that happened to me was that I was locked up, tried
afore the justices and committed for trial at the Assizes for the murder
of Tom Bond.

Of course nob