ly
into the furnace.

A storm was coming to Overlook unperceived, for the men were too much
engrossed in what lay there on the ground, ghastly and horrible, to pay
any attention to the clouding sky. Gloom was so fit for the scene, too,
that nobody gave a thought from whence it came. To Gerald Heath the
going out of sunlight, and the settling down of dusky shadows seemed a
mental experience of his own. He stood bewildered, transfixed, vaguely
conscious of peril, and yet too numb to speak or stir. Detective
O'Reagan, straightening up from over the body, looked piercingly at
Gerald, and then glanced around at the rest.

"Is there anybody here who saw Tonio Ravelli last night?" he asked.

"I did," Gerald replied.

"Where and when?"

"At the same place where I met Eph, and immediately afterward."

"Ah! now we are locating Eph and Ravelli together. That looks like the
lunatic being undoubtedly the stabber."

"And we must catch him," Brainerd interposed. "I'll send riders toward
Dimmersville immediately."

"No great hurry about that," the detective remarked; "he is too crazy to
have had any clear motive or any idea of escape. It will be easy enough
to capture him." Then he turned to Gerald, and questioned with the air
of a cross-examiner: "Did the two men have any words together?"

"No," was the ready answer; "I don't know that they even saw each other
at that time. Eph went away an instant before Ravelli came."

"Did you talk with Ravelli?"

"Yes."

"About what?"

"Not about Eph at all."

"About what, then?"

Now the reply came reluctantly: "A personal matter--something that had
occurred between us--an incident at the telegraph station."

"The station where Eph had awakened the girl operator? Was it a quarrel
about her?"

"That is no concern of yours. You are impertinent."

"Well, sir, the question is pertinent--as the lawyers say--and the
answer concerns you, whether it does me or not. You and Ravelli
quarreled about the girl?"

"The young lady shall not be dragged into this. She wasn't responsible
for what happened between Ravelli and me."

"What did happen between you and Ravelli?"

The two men stood close to and facing each other. The eyes of the
detective glared gloatingly at an upward angle into the pale but still
firm face of the taller Gerald, and then dropped slowly, until they
became fixed on a red stain on the sleeve of the other's coat. Did he
possess the animal scent of a bloodhound?