ith him. As I came back she held me by the
sleeve.

"Have you found anything----" she began. "Do you know of anybody?"

"Nothing has been found," I answered, and a look passed between us
which told me that my dread was her own.

"Jock, darling," she went on, "stay here! but don't _see_ anything you
may have to tell of afterward," and a vision of the hatless man in the
snow came back to me at her words.

"Fetch me some water," she went on, "and let none come in but you."

I stood holding the door ajar while the water for which she asked was
being brought; but though my back was toward her I knew she made a
hasty move between the open window and the desk, and as I drew near
again she pointed out a pistol lying directly under the duke's left
hand, at sight of which I fell back with a cry of dismay, for it was
one of a brace which I had given Danvers Carmichael on his birthday two
years before.

How this could have escaped my sight at the first look I had of the
dead was a thing I could not understand, for it lay well in the light,
and by its reflections would naturally be an object to hold the eye,
and even in my confusion of mind I felt certain that it had been placed
there since my first entrance to the room.

Turning to Nancy for some explanation, I found her conduct of a piece
with the rest of her life, for every power of her mind was focused on
present action, and there was something unnatural, beyond belief, and
not like a feminine creature, in the manner with which she stood
regarding each object in the room, and at sight of this self-control
McMurtrie's talk came back to me.

"I will not have you here," I cried, putting my arm around her to lead
her away. "It's horrible--horrible to think of such a trial for you,"
to which she paid no heed whatever, drawing herself from me in silence,
to cross to the open window and peer out into the night.

"Thank God!" she cried, "it's snowing in clouds. It will be a foot deep
by morning! But we must make an effort to search the grounds. We must
seem to leave nothing undone," and the thought being conceived, it was
executed on the instant.

"Why do you stand doing nothing?" she cried, throwing the door back and
confronting the huddled servants. "Get your lanterns out, and the
coach-lamps as well; the murderer may not be far gone. Search the
carriage-way toward the town," she called twice, and even in the
confusion I knew she was sending them as far from the road to Ar