He drank half a glass of brandy at a draught, and now the hand which replaced the glass upon the table had not the slightest tremor in it.

“’Tis all vastly interesting,” he remarked lightly.  “Have you seen the body, Boatfield?”

“Aye! aye!” quoth the squire, speaking with obvious reluctance, for he hated this gruesome subject. “’Tis no pleasant sight.  And were I in your shoes, de Chavasse, I would not go in there,” and he nodded significantly towards the forge.

“Nay! ’tis my duty as a magistrate,” said Sir Marmaduke airily.

He had to steady himself against the table again for a moment or two, ere he turned his back on the hospitable board, and started to walk round towards the forge:  no doubt the shaking of his knees was attributable to the strong liquor which he had consumed.

The little crowd parted and dispersed at his approach.  The lean-to wherein Adam Lambert was wont to do his work consisted of four walls, one of which was that of the cottage, whilst the other immediately facing it, had a wide opening which formed the only entrance to the shed.  A man standing in that entrance would have the furnace on his left:  and now in addition to that furnace also the three elm chairs, whereon rested a rough deal case, without a lid, but partly covered with a sheet.

To anyone coming from the outside, this angle of the forge would always seem weird and even mysterious even when the furnace was blazing and the sparks flying from the anvil, beneath the smith’s powerful blows, or when—­as at present—­the fires were extinguished and this part of the shed, innocent of windows, was in absolute darkness.

Sir Marmaduke paused a moment under the lintel which dominated the broad entrance.  His eyes had some difficulty in penetrating the density which seemed drawn across the place on his left like some ink-smeared and opaque curtain.

The men assembled outside, watched him from a distance with silent respect.  In these days the fact of a gentleman drinking more liquor than was good for him was certes not to his discredit.

The fact that Sir Marmaduke seemed to sway visibly on his legs, as he thus stood for a moment outlined against the dark interior beyond, roused no astonishment in the minds of those who saw him.

Presently he turned deliberately to his left and the next moment his figure was merged in the gloom.

Round the angle of the wall Squire Boatfield was still standing, sipping buttered ale.

Less than two minutes later, Sir Marmaduke reappeared in the doorway.  His face was a curious color, and there were beads of perspiration on his forehead, and as he came forward he would have fallen, had not one of the men stepped quickly up to him and offered a steadying arm.  But there was nothing strange in that.

The sight of that which lay in Adam Lambert’s forge had unmanned a good many ere this.

“I am inclined to believe, my good Boatfield,” quoth Sir Marmaduke, as he went back to the trestle-table, and poured himself out another half-glass full of brandy, “I am inclined to believe that when you advised me not to go in there, you spoke words of wisdom which I had done well to follow.”