man's cheek brought thither a hue
never visible in life, and imparted to the features a placidity very
startling by contrast with the circumstances of his sudden and violent
end.

CHAPTER XVI

BEFORE THE DAWN

It proclaims the attitude of John Grimbal to his enemy that thus
suddenly confronted with the corpse of a man whom he believed in life,
his first emotion should have betokened bitter disappointment and even
anger. Will Blanchard's secret, great or small, was safe enough for the
present; and the hand stretched eagerly for revenge clutched air.

Convincing himself that Hicks was dead, Grimbal galloped off towards
Belstone village, the nearest centre of civilisation. There he reported
the facts, directed police and labourers where to find the body and
where to carry it, and subsequently rode swiftly back to Chagford.
Arrived at the market-place, he acquainted Abraham Chown, the
representative of the Devon constabulary, with his news, and finally
writing a brief statement at the police station before leaving it,
Grimbal returned home.

Not until after dark was the impatient mother made aware of her son's
end, and she had scarcely received the intelligence before he came home
to her--with no triumphant news of the Red House Farm, but dead, on a
sheep-hurdle. Like summer lightning Clement's fate leapt through the
length and breadth of Chagford. It penetrated to the vicarage; it
reached outlying farms; it arrived at Monks Barton, was whispered near
Mrs. Blanchard's cottage by the Teign, and, in the early morning of the
following day, reached Newtake.

Then Will, galloping to the village while dawn was yet grey, met Doctor
Parsons, and heard the truth of these uncertain rumours which had
reached him.

"It seems clear enough when Grimbal's statement comes to be read,"
explained the medical man. "He had arranged a meeting with poor Hicks on
Oke Tor, and, when he went to keep his appointment, found the
unfortunate man lying under the rocks quite dead. The spot, I must tell
you, was near a target of the soldiers at Okehampton, and John Grimbal
first suspected that Hicks, heedless of the red warning flags, had
wandered into the line of fire and been actually slain by a projectile.
But nothing of that sort happened. I have seen him. The unfortunate man
evidently slipped and fell from some considerable height upon his head.
His neck is dislocated and the base of the skull badly fractured."

"Have you seen my