Wynston's murder, proceeded, as had afterwards appeared in
evidence, by the back stair to the baronet's chamber; he had softly
stolen into it, and gone to the bedside, with the weapon in his hand. He
drew his breath for the decisive stroke, which was to bereave the
(supposedly) sleeping man of life, and when stretching his left hand
under the clothes, it rested upon a dull, cold corpse, and, at the same
moment, his right hand was immersed in a pool of blood. He dropped the
knife, recoiled a pace or so. With a painful effort, however, he again
grasped with his hand to recover the weapon he had suffered to escape,
and secured, as it afterwards turned out, not the knife with which he had
meditated the commission of his crime, but the dagger which was
afterwards found where he had concealed it. He was now fully alive to the
horror of his situation; he was compromised as fully as if he had in very
deed driven home the weapon. To be found under such circumstances, would
convict him as surely as if fifty eyes had seen him strike the blow. He
had nothing now for it but flight; and in order to guard himself against
the contingency of being surprised from the door opening upon the
corridor, he bolted it; then groped under the murdered man's pillow for
the booty which had so fatally fascinated his imagination. Here he was
disappointed. What further happened you already know."

Charles listened with breathless attention to this recital, and, after a
painful interval, said--

"Then the actual murderer is, after all, unascertained. This is, indeed,
horrible; it was very natural that my father should have felt the danger
to which such a disclosure would have exposed the reputation of our
family, yet I should have preferred encountering it, were it ten times as
great, to the equivocal prudence of suppressing the truth with respect to
a murder committed under my own roof."

"He has, however, it would seem, arrived at some new conclusions," said
Dr. Danvers, "and is now prepared to throw some unanticipated light upon
the whole transaction."

Even as they were talking, a knocking was heard at the hall-door, and
after a brief and hurried consultation, it was agreed, that, considering
the strict condition of privacy attached to this visit by Mr. Marston
himself, as well as his reserved and wayward temper, it might be better
for Charles to avoid presenting himself to his father on this occasion. A
few seconds afterwards the door opened, a