The Viking's Skull

by John R. Carling

"No, for I hated him."

"Did you show your hatred in any way?"

"I secretly promised his prosecuting counsel a large sum if he should secure a conviction."

"How long did you remain abroad?"

"Ten years."

"And by a strange coincidence on the very night of your return to Ravenhall your brother's yacht went down in Ormsby Race. You believed he had gone down with it, till——?"

"Till he surprised me in Ormfell as I was in the act of removing the treasure."

"Let us hear what took place."

"We quarrelled. He had discovered the part I had played in the trial at Nantes, and also that it was I who had taken the runic ring from his wife. He threatened to assert his claim to the earldom, and so I struck him down with a stiletto hair-pin, the only weapon I had upon me at the time."

"How did you dispose of the body?"