“Listen!” said Colin.

But he had not strength to say more.  He dropped his head back and groaned.  And then she saw that he was dead.

She took the plaid from under him and spread it over his body to protect it from the snow.  Then leaving the dog in charge of its dead master, she hurried first to the cottage to see if Mary Firth had returned.  She wiped her hands of the blood that was on them, and made her way through the snow to Stromness.

It was almost midnight when she arrived in the town, for her journey had been a long and a difficult one.  All the houses were in darkness, and there was not a person to be seen in the deserted streets.  She made her way to the schoolhouse, and after much trouble succeeded in arousing Andrew Drever.

But when the door was opened she had not strength to speak.  She fainted from exhaustion as soon as she sat down in the kitchen.  Mr. Drever gave her food, which revived her; but it was not until she had had several hours’ sleep that she could recount even a part of what had occurred on the moor.  But the schoolmaster understood this much, that Colin Lothian was lying dead near to Mary Firth’s cottage, and, leaving the girl for a few minutes, he ran to Dr. Linklater’s and sent him to make further discoveries.

Such was the substance of Thora’s evidence, though I have given it in fuller detail than as she delivered it to Mr. Duke.

When she had been cross-questioned by Bailie Thomson the inquiry was closed by Mr. Duke, and the case remitted to a higher court.  Tom Kinlay was thereupon taken by Macfarlane to his prison cell to await the delivery of the formal charge of murder.

I was taking up my gun and preparing to leave when Andrew Drever requested me to remain in order to be present at the consideration of a further question that had arisen out of his investigations of the case.  Mr. Duke remained in his chair, talking with Thora, while Bailie Thomson and Mr. Fox went out.  Presently, however, I was somewhat surprised to see Captain Flett enter, with Peter Brown; and I could only conjecture that there was now to be some explanation as to the meaning of the two boxes being on the table—­the box out of the cave and the little chest from the Pilgrim.  But what was said and done at this supplementary inquiry may well be reserved for another chapter.

Chapter XL.  Ephraim Quendale.

“Tom Kinlay is no brother of yours, Thora; nor Carver your father!”

These words were ringing in my ears.  What did they mean?

I was questioning in my own mind what Colin could have meant when Mr. Drever asked us all to sit at the table.  He had some statement to make.

Turning to Mr. Duke he said: 

“In the remarkable evidence just given by Thora—­I will not now call her Thora Kinlay—­you who heard it were no doubt astonished at the revelation made to her by Colin Lothian in his dying moments.”