blotches could
reveal their secret! If only some Heaven-sent ray of intuition would
enable him to put the police on the track of the criminal! Theoretically,
a novelist and essayist should be a first-rate detective, yet, brought
face to face with an actual felony, here was one who perforce remained
blind and dumb.

Yet he was not blameworthy for failing to solve a mystery which was
rapidly establishing a record for bewildering elements. Wherein he did
err most lamentably was in his reading of a woman's heart.

No answering telegram came from his friend in London. The day wore
slowly till it was time to attend the inquest. He found a crowd gathered
in front of the Hare and Hounds. Superintendent Fowler was there, and
quite a number of policemen, whose presence was explained when a buzz of
excitement heralded Grant's arrival. He decided not to stand this sort of
persecution a moment longer.

Before the superintendent could interfere, he leaped on to a set of stone
mounting-steps which stood opposite the door. Instantly, seeing that he
was about to speak, the angry murmuring of the mob was hushed. He looked
into a hundred stolid faces, and stretched out his right hand.

"I cannot help feeling," he said, in slow, incisive accents which carried
far, "that a set of peculiar circumstances has led you Steynholme folk to
suspect me of being responsible, in some way, for the death of the lady
whose body was found in the river near my house. Now, I want to tell you
that I am not only an innocent but a much-maligned man. The law of the
land will establish both facts in due season. But I want to warn some of
you, too, I shall not trouble to issue writs for libel. If any blackguard
among you dares to insult me openly, I shall smash his face."

He knew when to stop. Superintendent Fowler's nudge was not called
for, as the orator simply met the scrutiny of all those eyes without
another word.

Curiously enough, the sense of justice is inherent in every haphazard
gathering of the public. Grant's soldierly bearing, his calm defiance of
hostile opinion, the outspoken threat which he so plainly meant, won
instant favor. Someone shouted, "Hear, hear!" and the crowd applauded.
From that moment he had little to complain of in the attitude of the
community as a whole. There were subtle and dangerous enemies to be
fought and conquered, but Steynholme looked on, keen to learn of any new
sensation, of course, but placidly content that the f