Exhausted by the few words which he had spoken, Jaggard fell back on his pillows in a dead faint. Seeing that further conversation was impossible at the present moment, Jen left the patient to the tender attention of Anne, and withdrew to seek David. He found him in a mood, pacing up and down the lawn before the window of the smoking-room. On perceiving his , Sarby turned pale, for he thought that Jen had come to continue their previous conversation, and so force his confidence. But the first words of the major at once undeceived him.  
"Well, David!" said the newcomer, with significance, "I have made one discovery without your help."
 
"A discovery. What is it?"
 
"I know who drugged Jaggard. I have learned who stole the body of Maurice!"
 
"Then you know more than I do," replied David, with all the appearance of truth. "My knowledge extends only to the death; not to the of the body."
 
"And you refuse to aid me," said the major, reproachfully; "well, keep your secret, I may be able to do without your help. But," added Jen, fixing a piercing glance on the young man, "I notice that you do not ask me the name of the person who drugged Jaggard."
 
"Because I guess the name."
 
"Ah!"
 
"Mrs. Dallas," said David, faintly. "It was Mrs. Dallas."
 
Jen drew back a step and looked at his with marked surprise.
 
"No," he said, at length. "Mrs. Dallas has had nothing to do with it."
 
"But I thought from what you said of the handkerchief dropped in the room--"
 
"That being the property of Mrs. Dallas, she had lost it there," interrupted Jen, smartly. "No. I told you also that Isabella had confessed to having dropped it at the time of her midnight visit. But now I know that she told me a lie!"
 
"Isabella! A lie! Impossible!"
 
"Not at all," rejoined Jen, coldly. "I can understand her reason for telling the lie. She wanted to shield--"
 
"Her mother!" cried David, quickly interrupting in his turn.
 
"Your mind seems to run on the mother, David," said Jen, looking again at Sarby with keen . "Can you prove by any chance that she committed the crime?"
 
Sarby flushed and drew back with cold reserve.
 
"No, Uncle Jen, I can't. I have my suspicions."
 
"Against Mrs. Dallas?"
 
"Well, yes; but I can prove nothing against her."
 
"It pleases you to be mysterious, David. Shortly I shall insist upon an explanation."
 
"Insist!" repeated the young man, annoyed by the tone of his guardian.
 
"Yes. You owe it to me--your second father--to tell the truth. You owe it to your dead brother's memory--for assuredly Maurice was your brother."
 
David stared at the ground, but in a moment or two he lifted his head in a manner.
 
"I owe you much more than I can ever repay," said he, in harsh tones. "All the same, Uncle Jen, I cannot reveal, even to you, what I know. If I did so, you would be the first to blame me."
 
"I don't understand you."
 
"I don't understand myself," said the young man, , "save that I am the most man alive."
 
"You must be, if you know who killed Maurice, yet refuse to confess," retorted Jen, with some heat. "Will you tell me the truth? I ask you for the last time."
 
"And I answer for the last time that the truth is not mine to tell," replied David, coldly. "If you doubt me question Etwald."
 
"What! that criminal?"
 
David looked up quickly.
 
"How do you know he is a criminal?"
 
"I can't give you my reasons. They would take too long to explain. But I believe that out of he killed Maurice."
 
"Oh," said Sarby, ironically; "and out of jealousy he stole the body?"
 
"No. Dido did that."
 
"Dido?"
 
An expression of surprise appeared on the pale face of the younger man.
 
"Yes, Dido!" repeated Jen, firmly. "Jaggard has just informed me that it was Dido who drugged him. Why did she drug him? To steal the body of my poor lad. Why did she steal the body! To the crime committed by Etwald."
 
"I don't quite understand."
 
"Listen, then, and I shall explain," resumed the major, with growing excitement. "I firmly believe that Etwald stole the devil-stick, and with it killed Maurice."
 
"From a of jealousy?"
 
". As you know the body was stolen before the post-mortem examination could be made. Why was this? Does not your own reason find an answer to that question?"
 
"No," replied David, still unconvinced.
 
"Why," said Jen, with a nod, "if a post-mortem examination had been made, traces of poison would have been discovered. The poison would have been proved as identical with that of the devil-stick. Thus, beyond all doubt, we should have learned that Maurice had been killed by the devil-stick."
 
"Well?"
 
"Well!" repeated Jen, in an irritated tone, "can you not rouse that dull brain of yours to some understanding? To the discovery, and to prevent the analysis of the poison in the body. Dido, under the direction of Dr. Etwald, committed the third crime."
 
"But why should Dido act so under Etwald?"
 
"Because the man has some power over her. What that power may be, I know no more than you do. Although," added Jen, with an afterthought, "you may be able to explain."
 
"No. I have no idea why Dido should serve Etwald."
 
Evidently it was impossible to extract information from so impenetrable a man. Jen was by this display of in a quarter where he least expected to find it. Usually sweet-tempered--especially toward his boys--the major quite lost control of his passion at the moment.
 
"Take care, David," he said, in an angry manner. "You are forcing me to believe that you are in this way from an unworthy motive. It is your duty to aid me in discovering and punishing the murderer of Maurice. Yet you leave me to do all the work and refuse your assistance in any way. Unless you alter your manner, and take me into your confidence regarding the reason of this strange behavior, a not easily me............