and armed against it, and the practical inquiry as to these strange deaths would be entered upon.
They came with full powers, and designed to search the house without warning on the following morning, and examine all who dwelt in it.
Sir Walter invited them to dine with him, and they did so. There were present the master of Chadlands, Dr. Mannering—who asked to spend the night there—and Henry Lennox; while Masters and Fred Caunter waited upon them. The detectives heard with interest the result of the post-mortem conducted during the morning, and related incidents in the life of Peter Hardcastle. They were all unfeignedly amazed that a man with such a record—one who had carried his life in his hand on many occasions—should have lost it thus, at noonday and without a sound of warning to his fellow-creatures. Dr. Mannering told how he had watched the medical examination, but not assisted at it. All attempts to galvanize back life failed, as the experts engaged immediately perceived they must upon viewing the corpse; and during the subsequent autopsy, when the dead man's body had been examined by chemist and microscopist, the result was barren of any pathological detail. No indication to explain his death rewarded the search. Not a clue or suspicion existed. He was healthy in every particular, and his destruction remained, so far, inexplicable to science. Hardcastle had died in a syncope, as the other victims; that was all the most learned could declare.
Impressed by these facts, the four made ready,
