denly conscious of a new sensation.
Without hearing or seeing anything, she knew that some one was
approaching, and, stranger still, she was conscious of a distinct
reluctance to turn her head and see who it was. She heard no footsteps;
the soft stillness was broken by the sound of no human voice. She wished
to turn round, and yet she shrank from it. Something fresh was going to
happen--something was at hand to trouble her. She made a great effort,
and rose to her feet. Then, breaking through her conscious reluctance,
she turned round.

A single figure, at that moment on a slightly elevated ridge of the bare
moor, stood out against the sky. He was walking swiftly toward her, and
yet without any appearance of hurry; and from the direction in which he
was coming, it was evident that he had just left Falcon's Nest. This
fact and his being unknown to her sufficiently established his identity.
It was her father's tenant, Mr. Bernard Brown.

CHAPTER IV

AN EVIL END TO AN EVIL LIFE

They say that, as a rule, the most grotesquely unimportant trifles flash
into the mind and engage the last thoughts of a drowning man. Regarding
this in the light of an analogy, something of the same sort was now
happening to Helen Thurwell.

With her mind steeped in the horror of the last few hours, she yet found
that she was able afterwards to recall every slight particular with
regard to this man's appearance, and even his dress. She remembered the
firm evenness of his movements, swift, yet free from all ungraceful
haste; the extreme shabbiness of his coat, his ill-arranged neck-tie,
escaped from all restraint of collar and waistcoat, and flying loosely
behind him; his trousers very much turned up, and very much frayed, and
the almost singular height of his loose angular figure. His face,
too--she remembered that better than anything--with its pale hollow
cheeks and delicate outline, deep-set dark blue eyes, black eyebrows,
and long, unkempt hair, which would have looked very much the better for
a little trimming. A man utterly regardless of his appearance, untidy,
almost slovenly in his attire, yet with something about him different
from other men.

He was within a few yards of her when she saw a sudden change flash into
his face as their eyes met. He hesitated and a faint color came into his
cheeks, only to fade away again immediately, leaving them whiter than
ever. There was something in his intense gaze which at that time she