ed Braden and Collishaw, anyway. The police
have got Fladgate, and Folliot shot Bryce and killed himself just when
they were going to take him."

"The doctor told you all this?" asked Mary.

"Yes," replied Dick. "Just that and no more. He called me in as I was
passing Folliot's door. He's coming over as soon as he can. Whew! I say,
won't there be some fine talk in the town! Anyway, things'll be cleared
up now. What did Bryce want here?"

"Never mind; I can't talk of it, now," answered Mary. She was already
thinking of how Bryce had stood before her, active and alive, only an
hour earlier; she was thinking, too, of her warning to him. "It's all
too dreadful! too awful to understand!"

"Here's the doctor coming now," said Dick, turning to the window. "He'll
tell more."

Mary looked anxiously at Ransford as he came hastening in. He looked
like a man who has just gone through a crisis and yet she was somehow
conscious that there was a certain atmosphere of relief about him, as
though some great weight had suddenly been lifted. He closed the door
and looked straight at her.

"Dick has told you?" he asked.

"All that you told me," said Dick.

Ransford pulled off his gloves and flung them on the table with
something of a gesture of weariness. And at that Mary hastened to speak.

"Don't tell any more--don't say anything--until you feel able," she
said. "You're tired."

"No!" answered Ransford. "I'd rather say what I have to say now--just
now! I've wanted to tell both of you what all this was, what it meant,
everything about it, and until today, until within the last few hours,
it was impossible, because I didn't know everything. Now I do! I even
know more than I did an hour ago. Let me tell you now and have done with
it. Sit down there, both of you, and listen."

He pointed to a sofa near the hearth, and the brother and sister sat
down, looking at him wonderingly. Instead of sitting down himself he
leaned against the edge of the table, looking down at them.

"I shall have to tell you some sad things," he said diffidently. "The
only consolation is that it's all over now, and certain matters are, or
can be, cleared and you'll have no more secrets. Nor shall I! I've had
to keep this one jealously guarded for seventeen years! And I never
thought it could be released as it has been, in this miserable and
terrible fashion! But that's done now, and nothing can help it. And
now, to make everything plain, just prepare you