d about
his son, or his suspicions, therefore he has no reason to believe that
the fellow is not still in the convict prison at Sydney. We shall keep
it from him now, whatever happens; but it would, for his sake, be best
that this shock should prove too much for him. He has had a very hard
time of it altogether."

"He is terribly prostrate," the doctor reported when Mark joined him. "I
don't think that he will get over it. He is scarcely conscious now. You
see, he is an old man, and has no reserve of strength to fall back upon.
Your father has been such a good friend to him that it is not surprising
the news should have been too much for him. I examined him at the
Squire's request some months ago as to his heart's action, which was so
weak that I told the Squire then that he might go off at any time, and I
rather wonder that he recovered even temporarily from the shock."

In a few minutes Sir Charles Harris drove up.

"This is terrible news, my dear Mark," he said, as he leaped from his
gig and wrung Mark's hand--"terrible. I don't know when I have had
such a shock; he was a noble fellow in all respects, a warm friend, an
excellent magistrate, a kind landlord, good all round. I can scarcely
believe it yet. A burglar, of course. I suppose he entered the house for
the purpose of robbery, when your father awoke and jumped out of bed,
there was a tussle, and the scoundrel killed him; at least, that is what
I gather from the story that the groom told me."

"That is near it, Sir Charles, but I firmly believe that robbery was not
the object, but murder; for murder was attempted yesterday evening," and
he informed the magistrate of the shot fired through the window.

"Bless me, you don't say so!" the magistrate exclaimed. "That alters
the case altogether, and certainly would seem to make the act one of
premeditated murder; and yet, surely, the Squire could not have had an
enemy. Some of the men whom we have sentenced may have felt a grudge
against him, but surely not sufficient to lead them to a crime like
this."

"I will talk of it with you afterwards, Sir Charles. I have the very
strongest suspicions, although no absolute proofs. Now, will you first
come upstairs? Doctor Holloway is here and Simeox, but no one has
entered the room since I left it; I thought it better that it should be
left undisturbed until you came."

"Quite so; we will go up at once."

An examination of the room showed nothing whatever that would a