Now, approaching the elm, again he felt that thrill which the spot
had for him, and came peering, at slower pace: no sound but the
gibbering rout of the stiff-stark beech-leaves. Some steps more, and
now he was at the mound which surrounds the tree: stood, listened:
silence, sightlessness: Margaret not there.

One more forward step: and now his foot struck a body.

As he stooped, his hand touched a revolver--which was his own;
another moment, and he saw running lanterns borne by two park-
keepers, and by their light saw the body of Isaac, who but now had
shot himself with the weapon that was in Hogarth's hand.

The park-keepers had just been urged by their master to the spot, he
having, he told them, heard a pistol-shot; and before anyone could
speak Frankl himself was there, defiled with the presence of the
dead.

He looked from Hogarth to the corpse, and from the corpse to
Hogarth, then, snatching the weapon from Hogarth's hand, exclaimed:
"Why, bless my heart, you've _murdered_ the man...."




XI

WROXHAM BROAD