s of committing a double murder for the purposes of
gain--because you knew that your friend Courtenay had left a will in
your favour in the event of his wife's decease. That will has already
been proved; but perhaps it may interest you to know that the latest
and therefore the valid will is in my own possession, I having found
it during a search of the dead man's effects in company with my friend
Boyd. It is dated only a month before his death, and leaves the
fortune to the widow, and in the event of her death to her sister
Ethelwynn."

"To me!" cried my love, in surprise.

"Yes, Miss Ethelwynn. Everything is left to you unreservedly," he
explained. Then, turning again to the clever impostor before him, he
added: "You will therefore recognise that all your plotting, so well
matured and so carefully planned that your demoniacal ingenuity
almost surpasses the comprehension of man, has been in vain. By the
neglect of one small detail, namely to sufficiently disguise your
identity when dealing with Curtis, I have been enabled, after a long
and tedious search, to fix you as the man who on several occasions was
made up to present in the night the appearance of the dead Courtenay.
The work has taken me many tedious weeks. I visited every wig-maker
and half the hairdressers in London unsuccessfully until, by mere
chance, the ruffian whom you employed to entrap my friend Boyd gave me
a clue to the fact that Curtis made wigs as well as theatrical
costumes. The inquiry has been a long and hazardous one," he went on.
"But from the very first I was determined to get at the bottom of the
mystery, cost me what it might--and I have fortunately succeeded."
Then, turning again to the cringing wretch, upon whom the terrible
denunciation had fallen as a thunderbolt, he added: "The forgiveness
of man, Sir Bernard Eyton, you will never obtain. It has been ever law
that the murderer shall die--and you will be no exception."

The effect of those words upon the guilty man was almost electrical.
He drew himself up stiffly, his keen, wild eyes starting from his
blanched face as he glared at his accuser. His lips moved. No sound,
however, came from them. The muscles of his jaws seemed to suddenly
become paralysed, for he was unable to close his mouth. He stood for a
moment, an awful spectacle, the brand of Cain upon him. A strange
gurgling sound escaped him, as though he were trying to articulate,
but was unable; then he made wild signs with bo