ot returned from
Polkimbra; so we were left alone to the gathering shadows and the
horror of the tale.

When my uncle finished there was a long pause. Finally he reached
out his hand for his pipe, filled it, and looked up. His kindly face
was furrowed with the marks of weeping, and big tears were yet
standing in his eyes.

"Murdered," he said, "murdered, if ever man was murdered."

"Yes," I echoed, "murdered."

"But we'll have the villain," he exclaimed, bringing his fist down on
the table with sudden energy. "We'll have him for all his cunning,
eh, boy?"

"Not yet," I answered; "he is far away by this time. But we'll have
him: oh, yes, we'll have him."

Uncle Loveday looked at me oddly for a moment, and then repeated--

"Yes, yes, we'll have him safe enough. Joe Roscorla must have given
the alarm before he had time to go far. And to think," he added,
throwing up his hand, "that I talked to the villain only yesterday
morning as though he were some unfortunate victim of the sea!"

I am sure that my uncle was regretting the vast deal of very fine
language he had wasted: and, indeed, he had seldom more nobly risen
to an occasion.

"Pearls, pearls before swine! Swine did I say? Snakes, if it's not
an insult to a snake to give its name to such as Colliver. What did
you say, Jasper?"

"We'll have him."

"Jasper, my boy," said he, scanning me for a second time oddly,
"maybe you'll be better in bed. Try to sleep again, my poor lad--
what do you think?"

"I think," I answered, "that we have not yet looked at the clasp."

"My dear boy, you're right: you're right again. Let us look at it."

The piece of metal resembled, as I have said, the half of a
waist-buckle, having a socket but no corresponding hook. In shape it
was slightly oblong, being about 2 inches by one and a half inches.
It glittered brightly in the candle's ray as Uncle Loveday polished
it with his handkerchief, readjusted his spectacles, and bent over
it.

At the end of a minute he looked up, and said--

"I cannot make head or tail of it. It seems plain enough to read,
but makes nonsense. Come over here and see for yourself."

I bent over his shoulder, and this is what I saw--

The edge of the clasp was engraved with a border of flowers and
beasts, all exquisitely small. Within this was cut, by a much
rougher hand, an inscription which was plain enough to read, though
making no sense whatever. The writing was arranged in five