“Shot him down!”

“Yes; but he’s not dead, sis—only wounded; but—”

“But what? Why do you keep anything from me now?” cried Claire piteously.

“It’s court-martial, and—it’s court-martial for striking your officer, Claire, and he knows it; and, poor fellow, in a desperate fit, so as to get into the hands of the magistrates instead of the officers, to be condemned to death, he—he—Claire, I can’t speak if you look at me in that wild way.”

“Go on!” she said hoarsely.

“He said—that it was not father—who killed Lady Teigne—but it was he.”


Volume Three—Chapter Nineteen.

Morton Bears the News Further.