do, he would not
permit himself to think out clearly or try to understand.

The boy, having told his story, hurried off to spread the news elsewhere
to more appreciative ears, for, he thought disgustedly, it might
have been just nothing at all for all the interest the gardener at
Bittermeads had shown.

As soon as he was gone, Dunn went across to the house, and going up to
the window of the drawing-room where Ella and her mother were having
tea, he tapped on the pane.

Ella looked up and saw him, and came at once to open the window, while
from behind Mrs. Dawson frowned in severe disapproval of what she
considered a great liberty.

"Mr. Clive has been shot," Dunn said abruptly. "They say poachers did
it. He was killed instantly."

Ella did not seem at first to understand. She looked puzzled and
bewildered, and did not seem to grasp the full import of his words.

"What--what do you say?" she asked. "Mr. Clive--Who's killed?"

Dunn thought to himself that her acting was the most wonderful thing he
had ever seen.

It was extraordinary that she should be able to make that grey pallor
come over her cheeks as though the meaning of what he said were only now
entering her mind; wonderful that she should be able so well to give the
idea of a great horror and a great doubt coming slowly into her startled
eyes.

"Mr. Clive?" she said again.

"Yes, he's been killed," Dunn said. "By poachers, apparently."

"What is that? What is that man saying?" shrilled Mrs. Dawson from
behind. "Mr. Clive--John--why, he was here yesterday."

Dunn turned his back and walked away. He heard Ella call after him, but
he would not look back because he feared what he might do if he obeyed
her call.

With an odd buzzing in his ears, with the blood throbbing through his
brain as though something must soon break there, he walked blindly on,
and as he came to the gate of Bittermeads he saw a motor-car coming up
the road.

It was Deede Dawson's car, and he was driving it, and by his side sat a
sulkily-smiling stranger, his air that of one not sure of his welcome,
but determined to enforce it, in whom, with a quick start, Dunn
recognized his burglar, the man whose attempt to break into Bittermeads
he had frustrated, and whose place he had taken.

He put up his hand instinctively for them to stop, and Deede Dawson at
once obeyed the gesture.

Dunn noticed that the smile upon his lips was more gentle and winning
than ever, the look in his e