came to the gate and asked for Mr. Coristine, as he said the
crazy woman was at the post office, and Mrs. Tibbs wanted to know if she
could have the use of the spare room for the rest of the night. Then the
Squire was alarmed, and a great revulsion of feeling took place. The
man almost entirely ignored was now in everybody's mind, his name on all
lips but those which had been more to him than all the rest.

Stable lanterns were got out, and an active search began. Mr. Terry's
practiced ear caught the sound of voices down the hillside, and he
descended rapidly towards them. Soon, he came running back, tearing at
his long iron grey hair, and the tears streaming from his eyes, to the
place where his son-in law was standing. "Get a shate or a quilt or
something, John, till we take it out av that Och, sorra, sorra, the
foine, brave boy!" At once, Mr. Douglas and Timotheus accompanied the
Squire to the little wood, and beheld the owners of the voices, Mr.
Newcome and his intending son-in-law, Ben Toner.

"Aw niver tetched un, Ben. Aw wor jest goan troo t' bush, when aw
stoombled laike over's carkidge and fall, and got t' blood on ma claws,"
said the former to his captor.

"S'haylp me," replied Ben, "ef I thunk it was you as killed the doctor,
I'd put the barl o' this here gun to your hayd and blow out your
braiuns."

"Don't let that man go," said the Squire to Toner.

"Ain't that what I come all this way fer?" answered the lover of
Serlizer.

The Squire and the veteran, with terrible mental upbraidings, raised the
body from its bed of leaves and wood-mould and placed it reverently upon
the sheet, which it stained with blood at once. Then, while the colonel
held one lantern and Wilkinson the other, Mr. Douglas and Timotheus took
the other corners of the simple ambulance, and bore their burden to the
house. In his own room they laid Rawdon's victim, removed the clothing
from his wounds, washed away the clotted blood, only to despair over the
flow that still continued, and rejoiced in the fact that life was not
altogether extinct, when they handed him over to the care of the three
matrons. While the colonel was sending Maguffin in search of the doctor,
the voice of Squire Halbert was heard in the hall, saying he thought it
must have been Miss Carmichael who had summoned him, at any rate it was
a young lady from Bridesdale. He stanched the bleeding, administered
stimulants, and ordered constant watching. "The body has suffe