s face. He said, 'Yes, I'm
off,' and sort of fell over his stick into the cab. The man, who was
already in, righted him on to the seat and said, 'Paddington' to the
driver who was at the door, shutting it. I said, through the window,
'Sabre! Old man, are you ill? What's up? Shall I come with you?'

"He put his head towards me and said in the most extraordinary voice,
speaking between his clenched teeth as though he was keeping himself
from yelling out, he said, 'If you love me, Hapgood, get right away out
of it from me and let me alone. This man happens to live at Tidborough.
I know him. We're going down together.'

"I said, 'Sabre--'

"He clenched his teeth so they were all bare with his lips contracting.
He said, 'Let me alone. Let me alone. Let me alone.'

"And they pushed off.

"I tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going down there to-morrow. I'm
frightened about him."

CHAPTER IV

I

Hapgood had said to his friend of the effect on Sabre of Mabel's action
against him: "He's crashed. The roof's fallen in on him." And that had
been Sabre's own belief. But it was not so. There are degrees of
calamity. Dumfounded, stunned, aghast, Sabre would not have believed
that conspiracy against him of all the powers of darkness could
conceivably worsen his plight. They had shot their bolt. He was stricken
amain. He was in the crucible of disaster and in its heart where the
furnace is white.

But they had not shot their bolt. The roof had not yet fallen on him.
They had discharged but a petard, but a mine to effect a breach. The
timbers of the superstructure had but bent and cracked and groaned.

Their bolt was shot, the roof crashed in, the four sides of his world
tottered and collapsed upon him, with the words spoken to Sabre by that
man who approached and took him aside while he stood to take leave of
Hapgood.

The man said, "I daresay you know me by sight, Mr. Sabre. I've seen you
about the town. I'm the coroner's officer at Tidborough. You're rather
wanted down there. I've been to Brighton after you and followed here and
just took a lucky chance on finding you about this part. You're rather
wanted down there. The fact is that young woman that's been living with
you's been found dead."

Sabre's face took then the strange and awful hue that Hapgood had marked
upon it.

"Found dead? Found dead? Where?"

"In your house, Mr. Sabre. And her baby, dead with her."

"Found dead? Found dead? Effie? And her bab