the jeweller lay. Some fifteen yards off there was
another pool of blood. Now the jeweller must have dropped instantly
for he was shot through the heart. Yet no one doubted but that the
other pool of blood was his. Fools!"

With this he turned off the road at right angles, and began to strike
rapidly across the moor. At first I thought he was trying to escape
me, but he allowed me to catch him up readily enough, and then I knew
the point for which he was making. I followed doggedly.
Clouds began to gather over the moon's face, and every now and then I
stumbled heavily on the uneven ground; but he moved along nimbly
enough, and even cried "Shoo!" in a sprightly voice when a startled
plover flew up before his feet. Presently, after we had gone about
five hundred yards on the heath, the ground broke away into a little
hollow, where a rough track led down to the Lime Kilns and the thinly
wooded stream that washed the valley below. We followed this track
for ten minutes or so, and presently the masonry of the disused kilns
peered out, white in the moonlight, from between the trees.

There were three of these kilns standing close together beside the
path; but my companion without hesitation pulled up almost beneath
the very arch of the first, peered about, examined the ground
narrowly, and then motioned to me.

"Dig here."

"If we both know well enough what is underneath, what is the use of
digging?"

"I very much doubt if we do," said he. "You had better dig."

I can feel the chill creeping down my back as I write of it; but at
the time, though I well knew the grisly sight which I was to
discover, I dug away steadily enough. The man who had surprised my
secret set himself down on a dark bank of ferns at about ten paces'
distance, and began to whistle softly, though I could see his fingers
fumbling with his coat-tails as though they itched to be at the flute
again.

The moon's rays shone fitfully upon the white face of the kiln, and
lit up my work. The little stream rushed noisily below. And so,
with this hateful man watching, I laid bare the lime-burnt remains of
the comrade whom, almost five months before, I had murdered and
buried there. How I had then cursed my luck because forced to hide
his corpse away before I could return and search for the diamond I
had failed to find upon his body! But as I tossed the earth and lime
aside, and discovered my handiwork, the moon's rays were suddenly
caught an