are right, however. I cannot afford to shoot you. It strikes me, however, that an allusion to cutting throats is ungracious and out of place on the part of the father of Luke Downing. Though, by this time, you have perhaps taken care to remove from Warling Wood the evidence of the murder committed by him, I promise you that his neck is not the less in jeopardy."

Sir Mark was satisfied. The hint was not made at random; and the immediate change of the old man's countenance convinced him that the evidence in question had not been removed; either because the poor father had wanted courage for the search,—or because his search had proved unsuccessful. The latter was, in fact, the case. Fruitless had been the clerk's utmost endeavours. When, at the close of many months after the fatal event in his family, he found heart for the attempt, all trace of the objects in question had disappeared.

"It is not of me and mine, sir, that I am here to speak," rejoined old Downing, as soon

as he could command his voice. "Better we should all be brought to shame, than that I should have to answer before God for sitting by and seeing the old house and lands of the Colstons wrested from their rightful owner, to fall into the hands of—"

"One whom even you will allow to have as much of the Colston blood running in his veins as either of the whitefaced heiresses who pretended to supplant me: By your leave, friend Downing, you are but an ass. You are deserting the cause of your order. If you saw things clearly and wisely, you would feel that, sprung from your own class, the grandson of a man who was the friend and companion of your grandfather, it is your business to support me in my pretension to the Colston estate, rather than people who are no otherwise entitled to it than inasmuch as their great uncle Mark may have played the rogue to the pretty daughter of one of the honestest men in Hartington."

The poor clerk, who had never before taken this view of the case, was for a moment a little

staggered by the sophistry of his host. But by degrees the plain sense of a virtuous mind resumed the ascendency.

"It is not the rights or wrongs that may have been, sir, for which I am accountable," said he. "All I have to answer for to God, to man, and to my conscience, is the having suffered you to obtain possession of documents, by the loss of which the claims of poor Miss Sophia and her sister have been set aside; and enable you to have a false key forged for Hartington church, by means of which-"

"What evidence have you, my good friend, of the facts you are pleased to assert?"

"The evidence of my own ears and eyes. Do you suppose I have forgotten the hammering in the church, the morning after the Colston vault was opened? Do you fancy I am to be taken in by the coffin-plate affixed to one of the old coffins, by the fellow who put himself off upon me as one of the undertaker's men? No, no, sir! I see plain enough through all these things now.”

"I did not inquire through what you saw,

or fancied that you saw, Mr. Downing; but simply what proof you could adduce in a court of justice of any unfair dealing on my part with either register, key, or coffin-plate. Such old wives' tales as those you seem disposed to narrate, are not so difficult of invention as to be believed on your simple asseveration. Where, pray, is your witness?"

"There!" interrupted the old clerk, pointing upwards with his trembling hand.

"Excellent!" replied Sir Mark, with a bitter sneer. "Truly a most dramatic touch! I have seen it better done though, before now, at the Surrey theatre. But do you suppose, my good friend, that mummery of this description would be admitted in proof by so matter-of-fact a person as a Lord Chief-justice of the realm? No, no. The wiseacres of the bench require a pair of human eyes to witness the doings of a pair of human hands, and a human tongue to declare it. I saw the murder of your son Jack, perpetrated by the hands of his brother Luke, on the outskirts of Warling Wood, and am ready to depose to it

on my oath. That is evidence! But did you see me destroy any portion of the Hartington register? Did you see me take an impression of the church key? Did you see any person in my employ affix a false plate to one of the Colston coffins?"

Poor Downing looked puzzled and panicstruck.

"Then how can you pretend to give evidence of the fact in a court of justice? Do you suppose the law-officers of the crown have nothing better to do with their time than listen to the drivelling surmises of a doting old fellow, whose brains have been cracked by family misfortune?"

"I know nothing about courts of justice or law-officers, sir," retorted old Downing, with more self-possession. "But I do know and am known to Colonel Garrett, the nearest magistrate in these parts. He is aware, sir, that, with whatever family troubles it has pleased God to try me, my mind's as reasonable as his or your'n. Not a soul in this parish can tax me with being negligent or inca