s shoulders.

"My young friend," he said, "have you come from Braster to ask that
question?"

"To give you the ring and to ask you that question."

"How do you know that the ring is mine?"

"I saw it on your finger when you were giving me wine."

"Then you believe," he said, "that I killed him?"

"It is no concern of mine," I cried hoarsely. "I do not want to know.
I do not want to hear. But I tell you that the man's face haunts me.
He asked for me in the village. I feel that he came to Rowchester to
see me. And he is dead. Whatever he came to say or to tell me will be
buried with him. Who was he? Tell me that?"

Ray smoked on for a few moments reflectively.

"Sit down, sit down!" he said gruffly, "and do abandon that tragical
aspect. The creature was not worth all this agitation. He lived like a
dog, and he died like one."

"It is true, then?" I murmured.

"If you insist upon knowing," Ray said coolly, "I killed him! There are
insects upon which one's foot falls, reptiles which one removes from the
earth without a vestige of a qualm, with a certain sense of relief. He
was of this order."

"He was a human being," I answered.

"He was none the better for that," Ray declared. "I have known animals
of finer disposition."

"You at least," I said fiercely, "were not his judge. You struck him in
the dark, too. It was a cowardly action."

Ray turned his head. Then I saw that around his neck was a circular
bandage.

"If it interests you to know it," he remarked drily, "I was not the
assailant. But for the fact that I was warned it might have been my
body which you came across on the sands. I started a second too soon
for our friend--and our exchange of compliments sent him to eternity."

"It was in self-defence, then?"

"Scarcely that. He would have run away if he could. I decided
otherwise."

"Tell me who he was," I insisted.

Ray shook his head.

"Better for you not to know," he remarked reflectively. "Much better."

My cheeks grew hot with anger.

"Colonel Ray," I said, "this may yet be a serious affair for you. Why
you should assume that I am willing to be a silent accessory to your
crime I cannot imagine. I insist upon knowing who this man was."

"You have come to London," Ray answered quietly, "to ask me this?"

"I have told you before why I am here," I answered. "I will not be put
off any longer. Who was that man, and what did he want with me?"

For a period of time which I could not meas