t. From the
complaints which had already reached my ears from the two policemen, I
was quite aware that even as early as their first arrival, they had found
a clean page where possibly a few minutes before the whole secret of this
tragedy may have been written in unmistakable characters; and while this
tilled me with relief in one way, it added to my care in another, for the
storm which could accomplish so much in so short a time was a bitter one
for a young girl to meet, and Carmel must have met it at its worst, in
her lonesome struggle homeward.

Where was she? Living or dead, where was she now and where was
Adelaide--the two women who for the last six weeks had filled my life
with so many unhallowed and conflicting emotions? The conjecture
passed incessantly through my brain, but it passed idly also and was
not answered even in thought. Indeed, I seemed incapable of sustaining
any line of thought for more than an instant, and when after an
indefinite length of time the door behind me opened, the look I turned
upon the gentleman who entered must have been a strange and far from
encouraging one.

He brought a lantern with him. So far the room had had no other
illumination than such as came from the fire, and when he had set this
lantern down on the mantel and turned to face me, I perceived, with a
sort of sluggish hope, that he was Dr. Perry, once a practising physician
and my father's intimate friend, now a county official of no ordinary
intelligence and, what was better, of no ordinary feeling.

His attachment to my father had not descended to me and, for the moment,
he treated me like a stranger.

"I am the coroner of this district," said he. "I have left my bed to have
a few words with you and learn if your detention here is warranted. You
are the president of this club, and the lady whose violent death in this
place I have been called upon to investigate, is Miss Cumberland, your
affianced wife?"

My assent, though hardly audible, was not to be misunderstood. Drawing up
a chair, he sat down and something in his manner which was not wholly
without sympathy, heartened me still more, dispelling some of the
cloudiness which had hitherto befogged my faculties.

"They have told me what you had to say in explanation of your presence
here where a crime of some nature has taken place. But I should like to
hear the story from your own lips. I feel that I owe you this
consideration. At all events, I am disposed to sho