Silence fell between them, broken only by the clucking of the whitefaced clock and the dreary sound of the wind outside, crying round the old house like a frightened woman in the dark.  Nearly an hour passed before they heard the sound of a guarded knock at the front door.  Dr. Ravenshaw went and opened it.  Austin Turold was standing on the threshold.

“This is bad news, doctor,” he said, stepping quickly inside.  “I came ahead of the others—­walked over.  Thalassa is waiting at the churchtown for the sergeant, who is away on some official business, but expected back shortly.  They may be here at any minute.”

He spoke a little breathlessly, as though with running, and seemed anxious to talk.  He went on—.

“How did it happen?  Tell me everything.  I could get nothing out of Thalassa.  He was detained at the police station for a considerable time, waiting for Pengowan, before he came to me with the news.  He gave a great knock at the door of my lodgings like the thunder of doom, and when I got downstairs he blurted out that my brother was killed—­shot—­but not another word of explanation could I get out of him.  What does it all mean?”

“I cannot say.  Your sister and I reached the house just as Thalassa was about to leave it to seek my assistance.  Your sister is in the sitting-room.”

Austin Turold brushed past the doctor and opened the door of the lighted room.  At his entrance Mrs. Pendleton sprang from her seat to greet him.  Grief and horror were in her look, but surprise contended with other emotions in Austin’s face.  She kissed him with clinging hands on his shoulders.

“Oh, Austin,” she cried, “Robert is dead—­killed!”

“The news has shocked me to the last degree,” responded her brother.  “What has happened?  Did somebody send for you?  Is that what brought you here?”

Mrs. Pendleton shook her head, embarrassed in her grief.  She remembered that she wished to keep the object of her visit secret from her younger brother, and she could not very well disclose the truth then.

“Not exactly,” she replied, a trifle incoherently.  “I wanted to see Robert again before I returned to London in the morning.  So we motored over after dinner, and found him—­dead.”  Fresh tears broke from her.

Austin Turold wandered around the room quickly and nervously, then drew Dr. Ravenshaw to the door with a glance.  “I should like to go upstairs before the police come,” he whispered.

Dr. Ravenshaw nodded, and they went upstairs together.  The shattered door creaked open to their touch, revealing the lighted interior and the dead man prone on the floor.  Austin approached his brother’s corpse, eyed it shudderingly, and turned away.  Then he stooped to look at the small revolver lying alongside, but did not touch it.  Again he bent over the corpse, this time with more composure in his glance.