issued for his arrest on the day after the
coroner's jury, having heard the whole of the evidence, brought in a
verdict that Mr. Faulkner had been wilfully murdered by a person or
persons unknown.

CHAPTER VI

A COMMISSION

About a week after the coroner's inquest, the servant one evening
brought in a letter that had been left at the door by a man who looked
like a fisherman. Frank gave a shout of joy as he glanced at the
address.

"It is Julian's handwriting, Aunt," he shouted, and then exclaimed, as
Mrs. Troutbeck, who was on the sofa, gave a low cry and fell back
fainting, "What an ass I am to blurt it out like that!" Then he rang the
bell with a vigour that brought down the rope. "Here, Mary," he
exclaimed, as the servant re-appeared at the door with a scared face,
"Aunt has fainted; do what you can for her. I will run round for the
doctor directly; but I must look at this letter first. It is from Mr.
Julian."

"Lor', sir, that is good news!" the girl exclaimed, as she hurried
across to her mistress. After the custom of her class, she had hitherto
looked upon the matter in the darkest possible light, and had joined in
the general conviction that Julian had been killed.

Julian's letter was written on board the smuggler.

"My dear Frank, I am afraid you must all have been in a horrible fright
about me, and no wonder. I am a most unfortunate fellow, and seem to be
always putting my foot in it, and yet really I don't think I was to
blame about this. In the first place, I may tell you that I am on board
a French smuggler, that we have just entered the Loire, and that in a
few hours shall be at Nantes. The smugglers will bring this letter back
to England, and as they say they shall probably sail again a few days
after they get in, I hope it will not be very long before it comes to
hand. And now as to how I got here."

Julian then related the story of the quarrel with Mr. Faulkner, of
hearing the gun fired, of running in and finding the body, and of his
pursuit of the murderer.

"After a long tramp on the hills he took to a place of hiding. I am
bound by oath to afford no clue as to where that place is, and can only
say that upon my following him in, I was pounced upon by some French
smugglers who were there with him, and trussed up like a fowl. Then
there was a discussion what to do with me, in which the man I had been
following joined. Of course I did not understand the language, but I
could see th