ome minutes; when he re-appeared, Dawson was
following him. "Poor fellow," said he to me in a low tone--"he was so
shocked by the sight, that he is still all in a panic; besides, as you
will see, he is half drunk still."

I made no answer, but looked narrowly at Dawson; he was evidently,
as Thornton said, greatly intoxicated: his eyes swam, and his feet
staggered as he approached us; yet, through all the natural effects of
drunkenness, he seemed nervous and frightened. This, however, might be
the natural, and consequently innocent effect, of the mere sight of an
object so full of horror; and, accordingly, I laid little stress upon
it.

We reached the fatal spot: the body seemed perfectly unmoved. "Why,"
said I, apart to Thornton, while all the rest were crowding fearfully
round the corpse--"why did you not take the body within?"

"I was going to return here with our servant for that purpose," answered
the gambler; "for poor Dawson was both too drunk and too nervous to give
me any assistance."

"And how came it," I rejoined, eyeing him searchingly, "that you and
your friend had not returned home when I called there, although you had
both long since passed me on the road, and I had never overtaken you?"

Thornton, without any hesitation, replied--"because, during the violence
of the shower, we cut across the fields to an old shed, which we
recollected, and we remained there till the rain had ceased."

"They are probably innocent," thought I--and I turned to look once more
at the body which our companions had now raised. There was upon the head
a strong contusion, as if inflicted by some blunt and heavy instrument.
The fingers of the right hand were deeply gashed, and one of them almost
dissevered: the unfortunate man had, in all probability, grasped the
sharp weapon from which his other wounds proceeded; these were one wide
cut along the throat, and another in the side; either of them would have
occasioned his death.

In loosening the clothes another wound was discovered, but apparently of
a less fatal nature; and in lifting the body, the broken blade of a long
sharp instrument, like a case-knife, was discovered. It was the opinion
of the surgeon, who afterwards examined the body, that the blade had
been broken by coming in contact with one of the rib bones; and it
was by this that he accounted for the slightness of the last mentioned
wound. I looked carefully among the fern and long grass, to see if I
could disco