n his
right.

"See that goes to Peter Ganns--it is my legacy," he said. "And
remember that Mark Brendon is my heir." He then put a small
object into the warder's hand. At the same time he apparently
suffered a tremendous physical convulsion, uttered one groan
and leaped up into a sitting position. From this he fell
forward unconscious. One attendant supported him and the other
ran for the prison surgeon. But Pendean was already
dead--poisoned with cyanide of potassium.

You will remember two facts which might have thrown light upon
his secret. The first was his accident in Italy as a youth; the
second your constant interest in a peculiar, inhuman quality of
his expression which you were never able to understand. Both
are now explained. With ordinary eyes the secret would have
doubtless been swiftly discovered by us. But in his case, so
dark were they, that pupil and iris were almost the same colour
and hence our failure to explain the artificial mystery of his
glance. He had, of course, a secret receptacle upon his person
beyond human knowledge or power of discovery, for he says that
only his mother knew of his accident. That accident was the
loss of an eye. Behind an eye of glass that took its place had
lain concealed, until he required it, the capsule of poison
found crushed within his mouth after death.

What the published statement of this knave has done for me you
will guess. I am leaving the detective service and have found
other occupation. One can only seek to live down my awful
experience. Next year my work will bring me to America and,
when that happens, I shall be very glad to see you again should
you permit me to do so--not that we may speak of the past, with
all its futility and bitterness for me, but that we may look
forward, and that I may see all is well with you in your days
of retirement, honour and ease. Until then I subscribe myself,
your admirer and faithful friend,

MARK BRENDON.

Peter opened his parcel.

It contained an eye made of glass and very exquisitely fashioned to
imitate reality. Its prevailing darkness had prevented the truth
from appearing, and yet, perfect though it was in lustre and
pigment, the false thing had given to Pendean's expression a quality
that never failed to di