hen the opening was large enough to crawl
through, they would hold it open by a billet placed length-wise, which
might very well become indented at the lower end, since the whole weight
of the stone would press it down on to the edge of this other slab. So
far I was still on safe ground.

"And now, how was I to proceed to reconstruct this midnight drama?
Clearly only one could get into the hole, and that one was Brunton. The
girl must have waited above. Brunton then unlocked the box, handed up
the contents, presumably--since they were not to be found--and then--and
then what happened?

"What smouldering fire of vengeance had suddenly sprung into flame in
this passionate Celtic woman's soul when she saw the man who had
wronged her--wronged her perhaps far more than we suspected--in her
power? Was it a chance that the wood had slipped and that the stone had
shut Brunton into what had become his sepulchre? Had she only been
guilty of silence as to his fate? Or had some sudden blow from her hand
dashed the support away and sent the slab crashing down into its place.
Be that as it might, I seemed to see that woman's figure, still
clutching at her treasure-trove, and flying wildly up the winding stair
with her ears ringing perhaps with the muffled screams from behind her,
and with the drumming of frenzied hands against the slab of stone which
was choking her faithless lover's life out.

"Here was the secret of her blanched face, her shaken nerves, her peals
of hysterical laughter on the next morning. But what had been in the
box? What had she done with that? Of course, it must have been the old
metal and pebbles which my client had dragged from the mere. She had
thrown them in there at the first opportunity, to remove the last trace
of her crime.

"For twenty minutes I had sat motionless thinking the matter out.
Musgrave still stood with a very pale face swinging his lantern and
peering down into the hole.

"'These are coins of Charles I.,' said he, holding out the few which had
been left in the box. 'You see we were right in fixing our date for the
Ritual.'

"'We may find something else of Charles I.,' I cried, as the probable
meaning of the first two questions of the Ritual broke suddenly upon me.
'Let me see the contents of the bag which you fished from the mere.'

"We ascended to his study, and he laid the debris before me. I could
understand his regarding it as of small importance when I looked at it,
for the me