floor! Two fearful fractures had rent
the skull open, and life was extinguished at once. Davis bent down, and
gazed long and eagerly at the ghastly wounds; but it was not till he
had laid his hand over the heart that he knew them to be fatal. A
short shudder, more like the sense of sudden cold than any sentiment of
horror, passed over him as he stood for a few seconds motionless; then,
opening the dead man's coat, he drew forth his keys and searched for
that one which pertained to the red box. He carefully placed the box
upon the table and unlocked it The contents were title-deeds of the
Glengariff family, but all in duplicate, and so artfully imitated that
it would have been scarcely possible to distinguish original from copy.
Of the Lackingtons there was nothing but a release of all claims against
Davenport Dunn, purporting to have been the act of the late Lord, but of
which the signature was only indicated in pencil.

"The discovery was n't worth the price," muttered Davis, as he turned a
half-sickly look upon the lifeless mass at his feet. "I 'm not the first
who found out that the swag did n't pay for the smash; not," added he,
after a moment, "that I was to blame here: it was he began it!"

With some strange mysterious blending of reverence for the dead, with
a vague sense of how the sight would strike the first beholders, Davis
raised the corpse from the floor and placed it on the seat He then
wiped the clotted gore from the forehead, and dried the hair. It was a
gruesome sight, and even he was not insensible to its terrors; for, as
he turned away, he heaved a short, thick sigh. How long he stood
thus, half stunned and bewildered, he knew not; but he was, at length,
recalled to thought and activity by the loud whistle that announced the
train was approaching a station. The next minute they glided softly in
beside a platform, densely crowded with travellers. Davis did not wait
for the guard, but opened the door himself, and slowly, for he was in
pain, descended from the carriage.

"Call the station-master here," said he to the first official he met
"Let some one, too, fetch a doctor, for I am badly wounded, and a
policeman, for I want to surrender myself." He then added, after a
pause, "There's a dead man in that carriage yonder!"

The terrible tidings soon spread abroad, and crowds pressed eagerly
forward to gaze upon the horrible spectacle. No sooner was it announced
that the murdered man was the celebrated D