The Viking's Skull

by John R. Carling

"Now my belief is that the earl, having discovered that Ormfell was the site of a buried treasure, was proceeding thither at night, either alone or attended by a servant, for the purpose of opening the hillock, and while on his way through the park he chanced to light upon his wife's hat-pin. Naturally he did not leave it lying upon the ground, but picked it up and placed it upon his person. And this is the weapon with which he attacked the other man, whoever he may have been, that was with him in the hillock. When the countess next morning received back her hat-pin from her husband, she little knew of the terrible use to which it had been put."

"Your theory, if correct, proves that the deed was unpremeditated, otherwise the earl would have gone provided with a more efficient weapon. Do you know the date of the countess's death?"

"She died in the autumn of '77."

"Then the crime must have taken place more than twenty-one years ago."

Idris fell to thinking: and the result of his thought was that it would be an ungrateful task to bring to justice an aged peer for a crime committed more than twenty years ago. For all he knew to the contrary the deed might have been a case of justifiable homicide: the earl had perhaps been compelled to slay the other in self-defence. Besides, was he not Lorelie's father-in-law? If ignominy fell upon the House of Ravengar it must fall likewise upon her. No breath of scandal must touch her name. Idris felt that his hands were tied: he could make no move in the matter.

"We know the author of the deed, it seems," he murmured, "but the identity of the victim still remains a mystery. Who was he?"

"That is a problem I am trying to solve."

"And you say the Viking's treasure is in the crypt of Ravenhall? What is Lord Ormsby's object in keeping it concealed?"

"I can but guess. Treasure-trove, as you know, is the property of the Crown: therefore the earl, on finding it, was compelled to act circumspectly. The sudden acquisition of a vast quantity of plate and jewels might have given rise to awkward questions on the part of the steward, and especially on the part of Lanfranc, the Ravenhall solicitor, a man somewhat given to suspicion. The earl was therefore obliged to secrete his ill-acquired wealth: and this he did by placing it within one of the coffins in the crypt, gratifying his avarice by occasional visits of inspection. That is my theory, but of course I may be wrong."