hecked his alarm before it mastered him. Come what might, he would
go up to the organ-loft, and he plunged into the staircase that leads up
out of the nave.

It is a circular stair, twisted round a central pillar, of which mention
has already been made, and though short, is very dark even in bright
daylight. But at night the blackness is inky and impenetrable, and
Westray fumbled for an appreciable time before he had climbed
sufficiently far up to perceive the glimmer of moonlight at the top. He
stepped out at last into the loft, and saw that the organ seat was
empty. The great window at the end of the south transept shone full in
front of him; it seemed as if it must be day and not night--the light
from the window was so strong in comparison with the darkness which he
had left. There was a subdued shimmer in the tracery where the stained
glass gleamed diaphanous--amethyst and topaz, chrysoprase and jasper, a
dozen jewels as in the foundations of the city of God. And in the
midst, in the head of the centre light, shone out brighter than all,
with an inherent radiance of its own, the cognisance of the Blandamers,
the sea-green and silver of the nebuly coat.

Westray gave a step forward into the loft, and then his foot struck
against something, and he nearly fell. It was something soft and
yielding that he had struck, something of which the mere touch filled
him with horrible surmise. He bent down to see what it was, and a white
object met his eyes. It was the white face of a man turned up towards
the vaulting; he had stumbled over the body of Mr Sharnall, who lay on
the floor with the back of his head on the pedal-note. Westray had bent
low down, and he looked full in the eyes of the organist, but they were
fixed and glazing.

The moonlight that shone on the dead face seemed to fall on it through
that brighter spot in the head of the middle light; it was as if the
nebuly coat had blighted the very life out of the man who lay so still
upon the floor.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

No evidence of any importance was given at the inquest except Westray's
and the doctor's, and no other evidence was, in fact, required. Dr
Ennefer had made an autopsy, and found that the immediate cause of death
was a blow on the back of the head. But the organs showed traces of
alcoholic habit, and the heart was distinctly diseased. It was probable
that Mr Sharnall had been seized with a fainting fit as he left the
organ-stool, and h