s. A small private income allowed him to indulge a habit of
forgetting to charge for his professional services; and, on the
strength of it, the Islanders forgave one who never remembered a face,
and who, when summoned to a sick-bed, had to be guided thither by a
messenger, lest he should knock at half a dozen doors in error by the
way. There was a tradition in St. Hugh's that once, running from his
surgery with a hot poultice, he had clapped it on the harbour-master,
who was politely intercepting him to point out that another two strides
would take him over the quay's edge into deep water. In person, Dr.
Bonaday was remarkable for a completely bald head, a hooked nose, and a
pair of vague, impercipient eyes, as of an owl astray and blinking in
the sunlight.

If Dr. Bonaday was an authority on lichens and mosses, Constable Ward
was an authority on nothing at all, even in his own house, where his
youngest grand-daughter attended to his wants. Amid a population which
seldom broke the law and never resisted it, he had sunk of late years
into a peaceful decay of all his faculties. He carried his emblem of
office, a small mace, attached to his wrist by a string, and his hand
shook pitiably as he fumbled for it, but less with excitement than from
shock at having been aroused and dragged from his bed into the night
air.

"I see no reason for taking the constable with us," the Commandant
decided, after a compassionate glance at the old man.

"In case of an arrest--" began Mr. Pope.

"First let us be certain that a crime has been committed."

"To my thinking, all the circumstances point to murder, and to nothing
else."

"And, if they do, we can accuse no one until we have found the body....
Constable, you can go back to bed."

"I thank you, sir." Constable Ward, for the instant plainly relieved,
checked himself, and stood trembling, irresolute. "You mustn't think,
gentlemen, that I'd shirk doing my duty."

"No, no, Ward: I quite understand," the Commandant assured him.

"The Governor," said Mr. Pope, slipping back to the old form of
address, disused for years--"The Governor rather doubts that you are
equal to it."

"For God's sake, gentlemen, don't put it in that way! This affair'll
get into the newspapers, over on the main, and if 'tis said that
Constable Ward was too old for his duty, whatever'll become of me?"

Mr. Pope turned away with a sniff of disgust. "People of a certain
class," said he half-audibly, "can s