he
spoke, Travers was beside her, Travers and Forshay and Robert
Murdock--yes, and silly little Mrs. Somerby-Miles, too, forgetting in
the face of such a time as this to be anything but helpful and
womanly--and all of these gave such assistance as was in their power.

"Help me get him up to his own room, somebody, and send a servant
post-haste for the doctor," said Captain Travers, taking the lead after
the fashion of a man who is used to command. "Calm yourself as much as
possible, Mrs. Bawdrey. Here, Murdock, lend a hand and help him."

"Eh, mon, there is nae help but Heaven's in sic a case as this,"
dolefully responded Murdock, as he came forward and solemnly stooped to
obey. "The puir auld laddie! The Laird giveth and the Laird taketh awa',
and the weel o' mon is as naething."

"Oh, stow your croaking, you blundering old fool!" snapped Travers, as
Mrs. Bawdrey gave a heart-wrung cry and hid her face in her hands. "You
and your eternal doldrums! Here, Bawdrey, lend a hand, old chap. We can
get him upstairs without the assistance of this human trombone, I know."

But "this human trombone" was not minded that they should; and so it
fell out that, when Lieutenant Forshay led Mrs. Somerby-Miles from the
room, and young Bawdrey and Captain Travers carried the stricken man up
the stairs to his own bed-chamber, his wife flying in advance to see that
everything was prepared for him, Cleek, standing all alone beside the
shattered cabinet, could hear Mr. Robert Murdock's dismal croakings
rumbling steadily out as he mounted the staircase with the others.

For a moment after the closing door of a room overhead had shut them
from his ears, he stood there, with puckered brows and pursed-up lips,
drumming with his finger-tips a faint tattoo upon the framework of the
shattered lid; then he walked over to the skeleton case, and silently
regarded the gruesome thing within.

"Nine fingers," he muttered sententiously, "and the ninth curves inward
to the palm!" He stepped round and viewed the case from all points--both
sides, the front, and even the narrow space made at the back by the
angle of the corner where it stood. And after this he walked to the
other end of the room, took the key from the lock, slipped it in his
pocket, and went out, closing the door behind him, that none might
remember it had not been locked when the master of the place was carried
above.

It was, perhaps, twenty minutes later that young Bawdrey came down