astly deed, but his lips must be sealed.
He must not tell; he would rather die than tell of what he knew. His
mother, out of love for him, and with a desire to be revenged upon the
man who had been his enemy, had, in her mad passion, taken away his
life.

He called to mind the incidents of the previous day. He remembered
that, not long after he had arrived at his office that morning, his
mother came to see him. She had come in by a side entrance and had
found her way across a little piece of intervening yard, and had thus
come to his office without the notice of others--at least, he hoped so;
at any rate, it was quite possible that she should have done so. He
wondered why she had come that morning, because she seemed to have
nothing to say to him of importance. But while they were there, she
had noticed a large knife lying upon his desk. It had been sent to him
some time before by a man from South America, with whom he had done
business. It was an ugly, murderous-looking weapon, and keen as a
razor. He remembered her asking questions about it. Soon after he had
been called out of the office, and when he returned he noticed that it
was not lying on the table. He had paid no particular attention to
this fact at the time, because his mind had been filled with other
things. He had been trying to discover Ned Wilson's whereabouts, and
he had been thinking of the things he meant to say to him.

During the afternoon he had forgotten all about his mother--he had
reason to--but on his return, after he had told her all that had taken
place, he remembered she seemed like one bereft of her senses. Every
detail of the interview they had together came to him there, as he sat
alone in the darkness, thinking and remembering. He called to mind
every word she had spoken; and, in the light of after events, he
thought he could plainly see their meaning. She had told him that he
need not fear, that he should be avenged, that the desires of his heart
should be realised. She had said something about Howden Clough. He
had paid no particular attention to it then, as he fancied she was
thinking of the place where he had quarrelled with Wilson; but now he
knew.

He remembered going into his mother's bedroom and looking into the
wardrobe where she kept her dresses. He had noted that it was nearly
midnight, and her bed had been untouched. He called to mind, too, how
presently he had left the house, determined to find her; how h