nature of
the glance he shot at his poor old victim that her words had struck
home. His wife saw it, too, but it did not disturb the set line of her
determined mouth.

"You'll let me keep the chain," she said, "and you'll use your wits, now
that you have used your hand, to save yourself and myself from the
charge of murder."

Quimby, who was a man of great intelligence when his faculties were
undisturbed by anger or shock, knelt and turned his victim carefully
over so that her face was uppermost.

"It was not murder," he uttered in an indescribable tone after a few
minutes of cautious scrutiny. "The old lady fell and struck her
forehead. See! the bruise is scarcely perceptible. Had she been
younger----"

"A sudden death from any cause in this house at just this time is full
of danger for us," coldly broke in his wife.

The landlord rose to his feet, walked away to the window, dropped his
head, thought for a minute, and then slowly came back, glanced at the
woman again, at her dress, her gloved hands, and her little satchel.

"She didn't die in this house," fell from his lips in his most oily
accents. "She fell in the woods; the path is full of bared roots, and
there she must be found to-morrow morning. Jake, are you up to the
little game?"

Jake, who was drawing his first full breath, answered with a calm enough
nod, whereupon Quimby bade his wife to take a look outside and see if
the way was clear for them to carry the body out.

She did not move. He fell into a rage; an unusual thing for him.

"Bestir yourself! do as I bid you," he muttered.

Her eyes held his; her face took on the look he had learned to dread.
Finally she spoke:

"And the daughter! What about the daughter?"

Quimby stood silent; then with a sidelong leer, and in a tone smooth as
oil, but freighted with purpose, "The mother first; we'll look after the
daughter later."

Mrs. Quimby shivered; then as her hand spread itself over the precious
chain sparkling with the sinister gleam of serpent's eyes on her broad
bosom, she grimly muttered:

"How? I'm for no more risks, I tell you."

Jake took a step forward. He thought his master was about to rush upon
her. But he was only gathering up his faculties to meet the new problem
she had flung at him.

"The girl's a mere child; we shall have no difficulty with her," he
muttered broodingly. "Who saw these two come in?"

Then it came out that no one but themselves had been present at their