Mortimer Tregennis considered earnestly for a moment.

"There is one thing occurs to me," said he at last. "As we sat
at the table my back was to the window, and my brother George, he
being my partner at cards, was facing it. I saw him once look
hard over my shoulder, so I turned round and looked also. The
blind was up and the window shut, but I could just make out the
bushes on the lawn, and it seemed to me for a moment that I saw
something moving among them. I couldn't even say if it was man
or animal, but I just thought there was something there. When I
asked him what he was looking at, he told me that he had the same
feeling. That is all that I can say."

"Did you not investigate?"

"No; the matter passed as unimportant."

"You left them, then, without any premonition of evil?"

"None at all."

"I am not clear how you came to hear the news so early this
morning."

"I am an early riser and generally take a walk before breakfast.
This morning I had hardly started when the doctor in his carriage
overtook me. He told me that old Mrs. Porter had sent a boy down
with an urgent message. I sprang in beside him and we drove on.
When we got there we looked into that dreadful room. The candles
and the fire must have burned out hours before, and they had been