destroy
human life. The idea is too horrible--it revolts me, Mannering."

"Well, it may do so. Banish any such irrational thought from your mind.
It is not worthy of you. I must go now. I will telegraph to London--to
Sir Howard Fellowes--also, I think to the State authorities on forensic
medicine. A Government analyst must do his part. Shall I communicate
with Scotland Yard to-day?"

"Leave that until the evening. You will come again to see Mary, please."

"Most certainly I shall. At three o'clock I should have a reply to my
messages. I will go into Newton Abbot and telephone from there."

"I thank you, Mannering. I wish it were possible to do more myself. My
mind is cruelly shaken. This awful experience has made an old man of
me."

"Don't say that. It is awful enough, I admit. But life is full of awful
things. Would that you might have escaped them!"

"Henry will help you, if it is in his power. It would be well if we
could give him something to do. He feels guilty in a way. I have little
time to observe other people; but--"

"He's all right. He can run into Newton with me now. It looks to me as
though his own life had hung on the pitch of a coin. They tossed up!
After that--so he tells me--he tried to dissuade your son-in-law, but
failed. Lennox is rather cowed and dismayed--naturally. The young,
however, survive mental and physical disasters and recover in the most
amazing manner. Their mental recuperation is on a par with their bodily
powers of recovery. Nature is on their side. Let me urge you to go down
and take food. If you can even lunch with your party I should. It will
distract your mind."

Sir Walter declared that he had intended to do so.

"I am an old soldier," he said. "It shall not be thought I evade my
obligations for personal sorrow. As for this room, it is accursed and I
am in a mind to destroy it utterly."

"Wait--wait. We shall see what our fellow-men can find out for us. Do
not think, because I am practical and business-like, I am not feeling
this. Seldom have I had such a shock in nearly forty years' work. You
know, without my telling you, how deep and heartfelt is my sympathy. I
feel for you both from my soul."

"I am sure of that. I will try and forget myself for the present. I
must go to my guests. I am very sorry for them also. It is a fearful
experience to crash upon their party of pleasure."

"I hope Travers may stay. He is a comfort to you, is he not?"

"Nobody can be a comf