l that he had heard. The world
was well rid of a poisonous scoundrel, and Beatrice would be free now to
marry the man of her choice.

"Was Sartoris hurt?" he asked, a little ashamed to feel that he would
have been glad to hear so for Mary's sake. "A delicate man like
that----"

"Internally, the doctor says," the officer went on; "been spitting blood
ever since he has."

Berrington expressed a desire to see the cripple, who received him
without any sign of feeling. He was lying back in an arm chair, his face
white and set.

"You need not condole with me," he said. "Don't ask me to make a
deathbed confession, for that kind of thing is sheer waste of time. I
know that I'm dying. I know that I may fall back at any moment, and then
there will be the end. I'm full of blood inside. I might have told that
fool of a doctor what he had come to find out--that a broken rib has
pierced the lung, and I'm bleeding away quietly. Feel my hands."

Berrington touched the cold, clammy fingers. They were icy with the
touch of death.

"_Rigor mortis_," Sartoris said. "Only a few minutes now. It's a good
thing for you, and it's a good thing for Mary, who has been cursed with
a brother like me. It's, it's----"

Sartoris said no more. There was a bubbling kind of sigh, blood welled
from his mouth and ran down his coat, his head dropped on one side, and
he was gone. There was nothing to be said, nothing to be done. On the
whole it was just as well.

"It's a ghastly business altogether," Berrington said to Field. "Old
soldier as I am, I have had quite enough of horrors for one night. I
understand that Miss Grey returned to the _Royal Palace_ with Mrs.
Richford. I had better go and tell them both what has happened."

Field agreed, and Berrington departed on his errand. It was not much
past eleven yet, so there was plenty of time. Mary and Beatrice had gone
back to the hotel in care of Mark Ventmore. They were seated in the
drawing-room when Berrington arrived.

Beatrice crossed the room quickly. She wanted to have a few words with
Berrington before the others joined in the discussion; she wanted to
know if anything had been discovered.

"About my father?" she asked. "This suspense is horrible. Have they not
got on the track yet? Why did they want to do that disgraceful thing at
all?"

Berrington explained as far as possible. Beatrice was quick to see the
meaning of it all. The recital of the story made her a little easier in
her m