om the rest, and sent out of the churchyard through
the crowd. The crowd drew back on either side in dead silence to let
them pass.

After a while a great shudder ran through the people, and the living
lane widened slowly. The men came back along it with a door from one
of the empty houses. They carried it to the vestry and went in. The
police closed again round the doorway, and men stole out from among the
crowd by twos and threes and stood behind them to be the first to see.
Others waited near to be the first to hear. Women and children were
among these last.

The tidings from the vestry began to flow out among the crowd--they
dropped slowly from mouth to mouth till they reached the place where I
was standing. I heard the questions and answers repeated again and
again in low, eager tones all round me.

"Have they found him?" "Yes."--"Where?" "Against the door, on his
face."--"Which door?" "The door that goes into the church. His head
was against it--he was down on his face."--"Is his face burnt?" "No."
"Yes, it is." "No, scorched, not burnt--he lay on his face, I tell
you."--"Who was he? A lord, they say." "No, not a lord. SIR Something;
Sir means Knight." "And Baronight, too." "No." "Yes, it does."--"What
did he want in there?" "No good, you may depend on it."--"Did he do it
on purpose?"--"Burn himself on purpose!"--"I don't mean himself, I mean
the vestry."--"Is he dreadful to look at?" "Dreadful!"--"Not about the
face, though?" "No, no, not so much about the face. Don't anybody know
him?" "There's a man says he does."--"Who?" "A servant, they say. But
he's struck stupid-like, and the police don't believe him."--"Don't
anybody else know who it is?" "Hush----!"

The loud, clear voice of a man in authority silenced the low hum of
talking all round me in an instant.

"Where is the gentleman who tried to save him?" said the voice.

"Here, sir--here he is!" Dozens of eager faces pressed about me--dozens
of eager arms parted the crowd. The man in authority came up to
me with a lantern in his hand.

"This way, sir, if you please," he said quietly.

I was unable to speak to him, I was unable to resist him when he took
my arm. I tried to say that I had never seen the dead man in his
lifetime--that there was no hope of identifying him by means of a
stranger like me. But the words failed on my lips. I was faint, and
silent, and helpless.

"Do you know him, sir?"

I was standing inside a circle of men