The atheist spoke in a tone that, coming from him, was quite startlingly respectful, and even, as it were, huskily sympathetic.

“You must excuse me, sir,” he said in a hoarse whisper, “but we didn’t think it right not to let you know at once.  I’m afraid a rather dreadful thing has happened, sir.  I’m afraid your brother—­”

Wilfred clenched his frail hands.  “What devilry has he done now?” he cried in voluntary passion.

“Why, sir,” said the cobbler, coughing, “I’m afraid he’s done nothing, and won’t do anything.  I’m afraid he’s done for.  You had really better come down, sir.”

The curate followed the cobbler down a short winding stair which brought them out at an entrance rather higher than the street.  Bohun saw the tragedy in one glance, flat underneath him like a plan.  In the yard of the smithy were standing five or six men mostly in black, one in an inspector’s uniform.  They included the doctor, the Presbyterian minister, and the priest from the Roman Catholic chapel, to which the blacksmith’s wife belonged.  The latter was speaking to her, indeed, very rapidly, in an undertone, as she, a magnificent woman with red-gold hair, was sobbing blindly on a bench.  Between these two groups, and just clear of the main heap of hammers, lay a man in evening dress, spread-eagled and flat on his face.  From the height above Wilfred could have sworn to every item of his costume and appearance, down to the Bohun rings upon his fingers; but the skull was only a hideous splash, like a star of blackness and blood.

Wilfred Bohun gave but one glance, and ran down the steps into the yard.  The doctor, who was the family physician, saluted him, but he scarcely took any notice.  He could only stammer out:  “My brother is dead.  What does it mean?  What is this horrible mystery?” There was an unhappy silence; and then the cobbler, the most outspoken man present, answered:  “Plenty of horror, sir,” he said; “but not much mystery.”

“What do you mean?” asked Wilfred, with a white face.

“It’s plain enough,” answered Gibbs.  “There is only one man for forty miles round that could have struck such a blow as that, and he’s the man that had most reason to.”

“We must not prejudge anything,” put in the doctor, a tall, black-bearded man, rather nervously; “but it is competent for me to corroborate what Mr. Gibbs says about the nature of the blow, sir; it is an incredible blow.  Mr. Gibbs says that only one man in this district could have done it.  I should have said myself that nobody could have done it.”

A shudder of superstition went through the slight figure of the curate.  “I can hardly understand,” he said.

“Mr. Bohun,” said the doctor in a low voice, “metaphors literally fail me.  It is inadequate to say that the skull was smashed to bits like an eggshell.  Fragments of bone were driven into the body and the ground like bullets into a mud wall.  It was the hand of a giant.”