“By gad, he’s done it!�
“Yes,� drawled the other, whose cold blooded calmness was in marked contrast with the unwonted excitement of the first speaker, “I rather expected it.�
“Here’s a pretty affair,� said the first man.
“Oh, I don’t know,� said the second indifferently, “it might be worse.�
“Worse for him? Great heavens, man, he’s dead!�
“Worse for us.�
“What d’ ye mean? I don’t understand.�
“Well, for instance, he might have shot himself before we—ah—plucked him.�
“Oh, I see,� returned my lord with a rather askant glance at his companion, for which I almost respected him for the moment.
The two stepped a little nearer. The first speaker, Lord Luftdon, one of the young bloods who had been having high carouse with Sir Geoffrey for the past week at the castle, bent over him.