Deb saw him coming and rushed out of the cottage to meet him.
"Oh, Jack, such a time as we've had!" she sobbed. "The doctor is here, and that Pooler just died."
"Pooler dead?" ejaculated the young machinist, in amazement.
He entered the back room. The doctor and Meg were there, the girl's eyes swollen from crying.
"Where is Mont?" he asked.
Meg pointed to the other door.
"He's in there too," she said, in a quivering voice.
Jack entered the front chamber. Max Pooler's body lay on the cot, covered with a white sheet. Beside it, on a low stool, with his face buried in his hands, sat Mont.
The young man's countenance was full of emotion. He took the young machinist's hand in his own, and pulled the covering from the dead face before them.
"Listen, Jack," he said in a low voice, "I want to tell you an awful secret. Before this man died, he confessed that he murdered my father. He was very penitent, and he--he asked me to forgive him."