e cloth and pulled. Boris held on even in death. Sapt drew his
sword, and, inserting the point of it between the dog's teeth, parted
them enough for me to draw out the piece of cloth.

"You'd better put it in your pocket," said the constable. "Now come
along;" and, holding the lamp in one hand and his sword (which he did
not resheathe) in the other, he stepped over the body of the boar-hound,
and I followed him.

We were now in front of the door of the room where Rudolf Rassendyll had
supped with us on the day of his first coming to Ruritania, and whence
he had set out to be crowned in Strelsau. On the right of it was the
room where the king slept, and farther along in the same direction the
kitchen and the cellars. The officer or officers in attendance on the
king used to sleep on the other side of the dining-room.

"We must explore, I suppose," said Sapt. In spite of his outward
calmness, I caught in his voice the ring of excitement rising and
ill-repressed. But at this moment we heard from the passage on our left
(as we faced the door) a low moan, and then a dragging sound, as if a
man were crawling along the floor, painfully trailing his limbs after
him. Sapt held the lamp in that direction, and we saw Herbert the
forester, pale-faced and wide-eyed, raised from the ground on his two
hands, while his legs stretched behind him and his stomach rested on the
flags.

"Who is it?" he said in a faint voice.

"Why, man, you know us," said the constable, stepping up to him. "What's
happened here?"

The poor fellow was very faint, and, I think, wandered a little in his
brain.

"I've got it, sir," he murmured; "I've got it, fair and straight. No
more hunting for me, sir. I've got it here in the stomach. Oh, my God!"
He let his head fall with a thud on the floor.

I ran and raised him. Kneeling on one knee, I propped his head against
my leg.

"Tell us about it," commanded Sapt in a curt, crisp voice while I got
the man into the easiest position that I could contrive.

In slow, struggling tones he began his story, repeating here, omitting
there, often confusing the order of his narrative, oftener still
arresting it while he waited for fresh strength. Yet we were not
impatient, but heard without a thought of time. I looked round once at
a sound, and found that James, anxious about us, had stolen along the
passage and joined us. Sapt took no notice of him, nor of anything save
the words that dropped in irregular utter