ing his shoulder with a protecting arm, murmured something in his
ear. Presently he recovered.

"He wasn't quite dead. I heard him murmur something but I wasn't able
to distinguish what he said. I went straight to the village and told the
constable and had the body removed."

T. X. rose from the table and walked to the door and opened it.

"Come in, constable," he said, and when the man made his appearance,
"I suppose you were very careful in removing this body, and you took
everything which was lying about in the immediate ate vicinity'?"

"Yes, sir," replied the man, "I took his hat and his walkingstick, if
that's what you mean."

"And the revolver!" asked T. X.

The man shook his head.

"There warn't any revolver, sir, except the pistol which Mr. Lexman
had."

He fumbled in his pocket and pulled it out gingerly, and T. X. took it
from him.

"I'll look after your prisoner; you go down to the village, get any help
you can and make a most careful search in the place where this man
was killed and bring me the revolver which you will discover. You'll
probably find it in a ditch by the side of the road. I'll give a
sovereign to the man who finds it."

The constable touched his hat and went out.

"It looks rather a weird case to me," said T. X., as he came back to the
table, "can't you see the unusual features yourself, Lexman! It isn't
unusual for you to owe money and it isn't unusual for the usurer to
demand the return of that money, but in this case he is asking for
it before it was due, and further than that he was demanding it with
threats. It is not the practice of the average money lender to go after
his clients with a loaded revolver. Another peculiar thing is that if he
wished to blackmail you, that is to say, bring you into contempt in
the eyes of your friends, why did he choose to meet you in a dark and
unfrequented road, and not in your house where the moral pressure would
be greatest? Also, why did he write you a threatening letter which would
certainly bring him into the grip of the law and would have saved you a
great deal of unpleasantness if he had decided upon taking action!"

He tapped his white teeth with the end of his pencil and then suddenly,

"I think I'll see that letter," he said.

John Lexman rose from the sofa, crossed to the safe, unlocked it and
was unlocking the steel drawer in which he had placed the incriminating
document. His hand was on the key when T. X. noticed the look