paler, and his bravado fell from him. His
breath seemed to stop. Then, "Where?" he whispered--"where is he?"

"Where, I pray, Heaven," Colonel John answered, with the same
solemnity, "may have mercy upon him."

"He is not dead?" The McMurrough cried, his voice rising on the last
word.

"I have little doubt he is," the Colonel replied. "Dead, sir! And the
men who were with him--dead also, or the most part of them. Dead, James
McMurrough, on the errand they went for you."

The shock of the news struck the young man dumb, and for some moments
he stared at the Colonel, his face colourless. At length, "All dead?"
he whispered. "Not all?"

"For what I know," Colonel John replied. "Heaven forgive them!" And, in
half a dozen sentences, he told him what had happened. Then, "They are
the first fruits," he continued sternly, "God grant that they be the
last fruits of this reckless plot! Not that I blame them, who did but
as they were bid. Nor do I blame any man, nor any woman who embarked on
this--reckless as it was, foolish as it was--with a single heart,
either in ignorance of the things that I know, or knowing them, for the
sake of an end which they set above their own lives. But--but"--and
Colonel John's voice grew more grave--"there was one who had neither of
these two excuses. There was one who was willing to do murder, not in
blind obedience, nor for a great cause, but to serve his own private
interest and his own advantage!"

"No! no!" the young man cried, cowering before him. "It is not true!"

"One who was ready to do murder," Colonel John continued pitilessly,
"because it suited him to remove a man!"

"No! no!" the wretched youth cried, almost grovelling before him. "It
was all of them!--it was all!"

"It was not all!" Colonel John retorted; but there was a keenness in
his face which showed that he had still something to learn.

"It was--those two-on deck!" The McMurrough cried eagerly. "I swear it
was! They said--it was necessary."

"They were one with you in condemning! Be it so! I believe you! But who
spared?"

"I!" The McMurrough cried, breathlessly eager to exculpate himself. "It
was I alone. I! I swear it. I sent the boy!"

"You spared? Yes, and you alone!" the Colonel made answer. "So I
thought, and out of your own mouth you are condemned. You spared
because you learned that I had made a will, and you feared lest that
which had passed to me in trust might pass to a stranger for good and
all! You