thing might happen to give me an instant of solitary
contemplation, without the threatening possibility of beholding my
thoughts and feelings reflected in another's mind.

Was this review instantaneous, or the work of many minutes? Forced by
the doubt to open my eyes, I met Clifton's full look turned watchfully on
me. The result was calming; even to my apprehensive gaze it betrayed no
new enlightenment. My struggle had been all within; no token of it had
reached him.

This he showed still more plainly when he spoke.

"There will be a close sifting of evidence at the inquest. You will not
enjoy this; but the situation, hard as it may prove, has certainly
improved so far as you are concerned. That should hasten your
convalescence."

"Poor Arthur!" burst from my lips, and the cry was echoed in my heart.
Then, because I could no longer endure the pusillanimity which kept me
silent, I rose impulsively into a sitting posture, and, summoning all my
faculties into full play, endeavoured to put my finger on the one weak
point in the evidence thus raised against Carmel's brother.

"What sort of a man would you make Arthur out to be, when you accuse him
of robbing the wine-vault on top of a murderous assault on his sister?"

"I know. It argues a brute, but he--"

"Arthur Cumberland is selfish, unresponsive, and hard, but he is not a
brute. I'm disposed to give him the benefit of my good opinion to this
extent, Charlie; I cannot believe he first poisoned and then choked that
noble woman."

Clifton drew himself up in his turn, astonishment battling with
renewed distrust.

"Either he or you, Ranelagh!" he exclaimed, firmly. "There is no third
person. This you must realise."

XXI

CARMEL AWAKES

One woe doth tread upon another's heel,
So fast they follow.

_Hamlet_.

Later, I asked myself many questions, and wandered into mazes of
speculation which only puzzled me and led nowhere. I remembered the
bottles; I remembered the ring. I went back, in fancy, to the hour of my
own entrance into the club-house, and, recalling each circumstance,
endeavoured to fit the facts of Arthur's story with those of my own
experience.

Was he in the building when I first stepped into it? It was just
possible. I had been led to prevaricate as to the moment I entered the
lower gateway, and he may have done the same as to the hour he left by
the upper hall window. Whatever his denials on this or any subject, I was
convinced that