their exertions proved useless; the head hung aside, the eyes stared.
In a few minutes Carnaby asked whether a doctor had been sent for.

'Yes. When I hear him at the door I shall go away. You came here
against my advice, and you've made a pretty job of it. Well, you'll
always get work at a slaughter-house.'

Her laugh was harder to bear than the words it followed. Hugh, with a
terrible look, waved her away from him.

'Go--or I don't know what I may do next. Take yourself out of my
sight!--out!'

She gave way before him, backing to the door; there she laughed again,
waved her hand in a contemptuous farewell, and withdrew.

For half an hour Carnaby stood by the divan, or paced the room. Once or
twice he imagined a movement of Redgrave's features, and bent to regard
them closely; but in truth there was no slightest change. Within doors
and without prevailed unbroken silence; not a step, not a rustle. The
room seemed to grow intolerably hot. Wiping the sweat from his
forehead, Hugh went to the window and opened it a few inches; a scent
of vegetation and of fresh earth came to him with the cool air. He
noticed that rain had begun to fall, large drops pattering softly on
leaves and grass and the roof of the veranda. Then sounded the rolling
of carriage wheels, nearer and nearer. It was the doctor's carriage, no
doubt.

Uncertainty soon came to an end. Cyrus Redgrave was beyond help: he
must have breathed his last--so said the doctor--at the moment when he
fell. Not as a result of the fall; the blow of Carnaby's fist had
killed him. There is one stroke which, if delivered with sufficient
accuracy and sufficient force, will slay more surely than any other: it
is the stroke which catches an uplifted chin just at the right angle to
drive the head back and shatter the spinal cord. This had plainly
happened. The man's neck was broken, and he died on the spot.

Carnaby and the doctor stood regarding each other. They spoke in
subdued voices.

'It was not a fight, you say?'

'One blow from me, that was all. He said something that maddened me.'

'Shall you report yourself?'

'Yes. Here is my card.'

'A sad business, Mr. Carnaby, Can I be of any use to you?'

'You can--though I hesitate to ask it. Mrs. Fenimore should be told at
once. I can't do that myself.'

'I know Mrs. Fenimore very well. I will see her--if she is at home.'

On this errand the doctor set forth. As soon as he was gone, Hugh rang
the bell; the same