e tiled roof. From the summit of this plantation to the sea
was one abrupt precipice, thickly overgrown for the first hundred feet
or so by pine trees growing out from the side of the cliff in strange
huddled fashion, the haunt of sea birds and a few daring rabbits.

They passed in at the hand-gate, and toiled up the steep path, threading
their way among a wilderness of overgrown box shrubs, long dank grass
and strange weeds. Helen, with her eyes fixed upon an open window on the
right wing of the cottage, fell a little behind. The others came to a
halt before the open door.

Mr. Brown met them and preceded them along the passage.

"I think he had better be carried in here," he said, motioning toward
the room on the left-hand side, the side remote from the sea. "I have
brought a sofa."

They stood on the threshold and looked in. The room was absolutely
unfurnished, and the shutters had only just been thrown back, letting in
long level gleams of sunlight, which fell upon the bare floor and damp
walls, from which the discolored paper was commencing to peel off. Long
cobwebs hung from the ceiling, waving slowly backward and forward in the
unaccustomed draught. Helen Thurwell, who had just joined the little
group, with a curious light in her eyes, and a deep spot of color in her
pale cheeks, looked around and shivered. Mr. Thurwell, with a landlord's
instinct, began to wonder who was at fault, his agent or his tenant.

The four men tramped in, their footsteps sounding dreary and mournful on
the uncarpeted floor, and awakening strange rumbling echoes. Helen
looked at them for a moment, all clustered round the single sofa which
stood in the middle of the apartment, and then stepped softly back again
into the hall. She looked around her eagerly, yet with no idle
curiosity.

The whole interior of the place appeared bare and comfortless. There
were no rugs in the hall, no carpet on the stairs, nor a single sign of
habitation. Nor was there any servant about. She looked again into the
room out of which she had just stepped. They were preparing to lift the
body from the gate, which they had laid upon the floor, on to the sofa.
She stepped back into the hall, and listened. There was no sound from
any other part of the house. They were all too deeply engrossed to think
of her. It was her chance!

She was very pale, and very resolute. The look which had come into her
face for so short a time ago had had its meaning. The time fo