id they manifest any fear of what awaited them. Facts, indeed, may
be stubborn things, but even facts will not upset the convictions of
a lifetime. Not one of the four for an instant imagined that a
supernatural explanation of the mystery existed. Their minds were open,
and their wits, long trained in problems obscure and difficult, assured
them that the problem was capable of solution and within the power of
their wits to solve. They apprehended no discovery from the watch to
be undertaken; but, at Frith's orders, they set stolidly about it, as
a preliminary to the proceedings of the following day. Once proved that
the murderous force was powerless against men prepared and armed against
it, and the practical inquiry as to these strange deaths would be
entered upon.

They came with full powers, and designed to search the house without
warning on the following morning, and examine all who dwelt in it.

Sir Walter invited them to dine with him, and they did so. There were
present the master of Chadlands, Dr. Mannering--who asked to spend the
night there--and Henry Lennox; while Masters and Fred Caunter waited
upon them. The detectives heard with interest the result of the
post-mortem conducted during the morning, and related incidents in the
life of Peter Hardcastle. They were all unfeignedly amazed that a man
with such a record--one who had carried his life in his hand on many
occasions--should have lost it thus, at noonday and without a sound of
warning to his fellow-creatures. Dr. Mannering told how he had watched
the medical examination, but not assisted at it. All attempts to
galvanize back life failed, as the experts engaged immediately perceived
they must upon viewing the corpse; and during the subsequent autopsy,
when the dead man's body had been examined by chemist and microscopist,
the result was barren of any pathological detail. No indication to
explain his death rewarded the search. Not a clue or suspicion existed.
He was healthy in every particular, and his destruction remained, so
far, inexplicable to science. Hardcastle had died in a syncope, as the
other victims; that was all the most learned could declare.

Impressed by these facts, the four made ready, and Lennox observed that
they neither drank during their meal nor smoked after it.

At nine o'clock they began their work of the night, but invited nobody
to assist them, and begged that they might not be approached until
daylight on the following morn