is own safety. So
gigantic was his selfishness, that the working of his mind was not
disturbed by the enormity of the crime he had committed; he saw now
that, as events had turned out, he had acted unwisely in taking the
jewels from their box; and, alertly and with something like calmness, he
unlocked the safe, replaced the jewels in the box and left the safe door
open; he was actually turning away, leaving the jewel-case in its place,
when his cupidity got the better of him and he took up the case, hid it
under his dressing-gown, and went towards the bedroom door.

As he reached it, he glanced over his shoulder at the silent,
blood-stained form lying on the floor; he wondered whether his father
were dead or only stunned. For a moment, he wished that the blow had
been fatal: he, Heyton, would be the Marquess; there would be plenty of
money ready to his hand, there would be no need to steal his own jewels,
he thought, with an hysterical giggle. But he could leave nothing to
chance now. With another glance at the motionless figure, he stole from
the room and reached his own.

The unnatural calm which had supported him during the last few minutes
had deserted him by this time, and, in closing the door, he did so
clumsily enough to make a sound; the sound, slight as it was, struck him
with renewed terror, and, in crossing the room, he stumbled against a
chair and overthrew it; and let the two keys slip from his fingers. The
sound of the falling chair was loud and distinct enough to fill him with
apprehension, and he stood breathless and listened, as if he expected
the whole household to awake.

There was a movement in Miriam's room, and he heard her voice calling to
him softly.

"Was that you, Percy?" she asked, in the tone of one just awakened from
sleep.

He was silent for a moment; it seemed hours to him--then he slipped into
the bed, and, with a yawn, as if she had roused him from sleep, he
replied,

"What is it?"

"I don't know," she said. "I thought I heard a noise."

"Oh, that!" he said, with another yawn. "I knocked over the chair by the
bed, reaching for a glass of water. For goodness' sake, go to sleep and
don't bother!"

Mentally cursing his wife, Heyton closed his eyes and tried to think.
Strangely enough, his lack of imagination helped him; the imaginative
man, in Heyton's position, would have conjured up all the terrible
possibilities which environed him; but Heyton's mind was dull and
narrow, and