having seen me in the court at Berwick; and it was with open-mouthed
surprise that they listened to what I had to tell them. Presently we were
all three round the dead man, and this time there was the light of three
lamps on his face and on the gouts of blood that were all about him, and
Chisholm clicked his tongue sharply at what he saw.

"Here's a sore sight for honest folk!" he said in a low voice, as he bent
down and touched one of the hands. "Aye, and he's been dead a good hour,
I should say, by the feel of him! You heard nothing as you came down yon
lane, Mr. Hugh?"

"Not a sound!" I answered.

"And saw nothing?" he questioned.

"Nothing and nobody!" I said.

"Well," said he, "we'll have to get him away from this. You'll have to
get help," he went on, turning to the constable. "Fetch some men to help
us carry him. He'll have to be taken to the nearest inn for the
inquest--that's how the law is. I wasn't going to ask it while yon man
was about, Mr. Hugh," he continued, when Turndale had gone hurrying
towards the village; "but you'll not mind me asking it now--what were you
doing here yourself, at this hour?"

"You've a good right, Chisholm," said I; "and I'll tell you, for by all I
can see, there'll be no way of keeping it back, and it's no concern of
mine to keep it back, and I don't care who knows all about it--not me!
The truth is, we've a lodger at our house, one Mr. James Gilverthwaite,
that's a mysterious sort of man, and he's at present in his bed with a