vaguely assume that
some feeling of resentment had meanwhile been working up in him, and it
found expression during his chat with Helen in the conservatory."

"Did you use threats to him during the subsequent wrangle?"

"Threats! Good gracious, no. I was angry with him for spoiling Miss
Layton's enjoyment. I called him an ass, and said that he had better have
remained away another year than come back and make mischief. That is all.
Mrs. Eastham was far more outspoken."

"Indeed. What did she say?"

"She hinted that his temper was a reminiscence of his Southern birth,
always a sore point with him, and contrasted me with him, to his
disadvantage. All very unfair, of course, but, you see, she was the
hostess, and Alan had upset her party very much."

"So you walked home, and resolved to hold out the olive branch?"

"Most decidedly. I was older, perhaps a trifle more sedate. I knew that
Helen loved me. There were no difficulties in the way of our marriage,
which was arranged for the following spring. Indeed, my second trial took
place on the very date we had selected. It was my duty to use poor Alan
gently. Even his foolish and unreasonable jealousy was a compliment."

Brett threw the scrap-book on to the table. He clasped his hands in front
of his knees, tucking his heels on the edge of his chair.

"Mr. Hume," he said slowly, gazing fixedly at the other, "I believe you.
You did not kill your cousin."

CHAPTER III

THE DREAM

"Thank you," was the quiet answer.

"You hinted at some supernatural influence in relation to this crime. What
did you mean?"

"Ah, that is the unpublished part of the affair. We are a Scots family, as
our name implies. The first Sir Alan Frazer became a baronet owing to his
services to King George during the '45 Rebellion. There was some trouble
about a sequestered estate--now our place in Scotland--which belonged to
his wife's brother, a Hume and a rebel. Anyhow, in 1763, he fought a duel
with Hume's son, his own nephew by marriage, and was killed."

"Really," broke in Brett, "this ancient history--"

"Is quite to the point. Sir Alan the first fought and died in front of the
library at Beechcroft."

The barrister commenced to study the moulding in the centre of the
ceiling.

"He was succeeded by his grandson, a little lad of eight. In 1807, after a
heavy drinking bout, the second Sir Alan Hume-Frazer cut his throat, and
chose the scene of his ancestor's duel for the opera