"Well, I am glad you have. What do you think now the dead man's horse is
worth?"

"Oh! fifty or sixty guineas value."

"Then very good. Then, when the affair is all settled, I will trouble
you for twenty pounds.

"You?"

"Yes, to be sure. Who else do you suppose is going to interfere with
you? One is enough, ain't it, at a time; and I think, after giving you
such advice as I have, that I am entitled, at all events, to something."

"I tell you what," said the landlord of the hotel, "taking all things
into consideration, I have altered my mind rather, and won't do it."

"Very good. You need not; only mind, if you do, I am down upon you like
a shot."

The excitement contingent upon the inquest was very great; indeed, the
large room in the public-house, where it was held, was crowded to
suffocation with persons who were anxious to be present at the
proceedings. When the landlord reached home, of course he told his
guest, the baron, of the discovery he had made, that the murdered man
was the strange visitor of the previous night; for now, from the
frightful wound he had received in his throat, the belief that he was
murdered became too rational a one to admit of any doubts, and was that
which was universally adopted in preference to any other suggestion upon
the occasion; although, no doubt, people would be found who would not
scruple to aver that he had cut his own throat, after making his way
into the well belonging to Anderbury House.

The landlord had his own misgivings concerning his guest, the baron, now
that something had occurred of such an awful and mysterious a nature to
one who was evidently known to him. It did not seem to be a pleasant
thing to have such an intimate friend of a man who had been murdered in
one's house, especially when it came to be considered that he was the
last person seen in his company, and that, consequently, he was
peculiarly called upon to give an explanation of how, and under what
circumstances, he had parted with him.

The baron was sitting smoking in the most unconcerned manner in the
world, when the landlord came to bring him this intelligence, and, when
he had heard him to an end, the remark he made was,--

"Really, you very much surprise me; but, perhaps, as you are better
acquainted with the town than I am, you can tell me who he was?"

"Why, sir, that is what we hoped you would be able to tell us."

"How should I tell you? He introduced himself to me as a Mr. Mitche