St. Mary's clock was chiming half-past seven when Ephraim Judd, suddenly turning the corner of a street on his way to the Bank, all but ran against Peggy Lown. She was the very woman he was coming thus early to see. He wanted her to get the office floor washed before John Brancker should arrive; but the sight of her white, scared face sent a sudden thrill of terror to his heart. Was anything suspected? Had anything been discovered? were his mental queries, thinking of himself alone.

"Oh, Mr. Judd, thank heaven I've met you!" cried Peggy, with a great gasp. "Run to the Bank, sir. There's been murder--murder! Poor Mr. Hazeldine----" But here Peggy caught sight of a policeman at the top of the street, and hurried off without a word more.

Mr. Hazeldine murdered! Ephraim Judd caught hold of a garden railing to keep himself from falling. For a moment or two the street and its houses faded away, and he was looking through the fanlight again, as on the previous night. A boy stopped and stared curiously at him; then Ephraim's wits came back. A few rapid strides brought him to the Bank. One of the heavy doors was open, left so by Peggy Lown. Ephraim passed through, and made at once for Mr. Hazeldine's room. He took in the scene at a glance. Mrs. Sweet had had some water thrown over her, and showed signs of returning consciousness. Sweet himself, only partially dressed, was kneeling on one knee a foot or two away from the murdered man. He had tried to lift up the body, but had been compelled to let it drop again, and now he was staring at it as though he could not believe the evidence of his senses. A short distance away lay the knife--no one would touch that till the police arrived. And then Ephraim saw something else which Sweet in his perturbation had failed to notice; the iron door which opened into the strong room was partially open. Had there been robbery as well as murder?

Mr. Hazeldine was lying on his face, with one arm under his head, and the other outstretched, the hand of the latter being clenched as if in a spasm of mortal agony. Mr. Judd stooped and took hold of the hand; it was as cold as marble and apparently as senseless. No life was there.

"Oh, Mr. Judd, sir, what a sight is this!" cried Obed, while the tears streamed down his pudgy cheeks.

Mr. Judd did not answer. He heard the policeman's heavy footfall, and next moment that functionary came in, accompanied by Peggy, and followed at a respectful distance by a crowd of some half-dozen people from the street, who felt sure that it must be a case of burglary at the least, and that, by good luck, there might perhaps be murder as well.

Mrs. Sweet was sitting up by this time, and staring round in a dazed sort of way. The sight of the constable roused her. She put her hands to her head and felt at her drenched cap and hair. "What a sight I must look! I wish I had my other cap on," was the first thought in her mind. Then she whipped off her apron and hid her saturated head-dress with it. It was the touch of comedy which is seldom absent from even the grimmest of human tragedies.

The constable advanced without a word, and turned the body of the dead man over on its back. Mr. Hazeldine's vest was unbuttoned, the ends of his cravat were hanging loose, and his collar had apparently been torn by violence from the stud which had held it. His shirtfront had been cut by some sharp instrument just above the region of the heart, a small red patch marking the place.

"He's dead enough, poor gentleman," said he, with a shake of his head, as he let his fingers rest for a moment on Mr. Hazeldine's wrist. "But we shall have the doctor here in a minute or two."

Then he picked up the knife and examined it curiously. The eyes of all present moved as with one accord from the dead man to the weapon that had slain him. Fresh footsteps were heard outside, the crowd at the door divided for a moment, and in came Mr. Chief Constable Mace attended by one of his men and Dr. Barton.

The idlers were driven out, and the front door was shut and bolted. The news had spread, and already some half-hundred people had assembled outside the Bank. Those inside were waiting for the first words of Dr. Barton. Not long had they to wait.

"He has been dead for several hours, probably since midnight, or even earlier," was the verdict. Then he asked that a table might be brought in from some other room, and the body be laid upon it.

The knife was in Mr. Mace's possession by this time. He showed it to the doctor.

"Yes, it looks like it, but we shall know better before long," said the latter. He was taking off his coat and rolling up his shirt-sleeves. Sweet, who was trembling like a jelly, had gone with one of the constables to fetch a table.

"It seems to me as if there has been robbery as well as murder," said Mr. Judd, in a whisper to the chief constable, as he pointed to the open door of the strong room.

Mr. Mace nodded.

"You know the premises, Mr. Judd," he said. "Suppose you and I have a look."

The strong room was in darkness except for a sickly gleam of daylight which penetrated through the small grated opening in the outer wall, but Ephraim struck a match and lighted the gas. The door of one of the three iron safes, the one in which bullion was always kept, was wide open. Apparently the safe had been rifled. Strewn about the floor were a number of documents, three or four empty cash-bags, and some books. There, too, open and empty, lay the black leather bag which had contained the twelve hundred pounds brought by Mr. Hazeldine from London the previous afternoon.

"It looks as if somebody had been here that had no right to," said Mr. Mace.

"It does indeed," assented Ephraim. "I think we ought to have Mr. Brancker here as soon as possible."

"Right you are; and there's the poor gentleman's relations to be told. Who's to do that?"

"I will go and break the news to Mr. Clement--that's the doctor--if you like, and then he can tell the others."

"Do so, please; and could you not call on Mr. Brancker at the same time?"

"He lives in an opposite direction. One of your men might fetch him in ten minutes. By-the-bye, I shouldn't be a bit surprised if Mr. B. was the last person who saw the Governor alive."

"Ah; in that case the sooner we have him here the better. But what reason have you for saying so?"

"Why, I met him about half-past ten last night on his way to the Bank. He said that he was coming to fetch his umbrella, but he may have seen Mr. H. at the same time."

"Um! Well, we shall hear what he has to say when he arrives."

"No doubt Sweet can tell you more of the matter than I can."

In speaking thus of Mr. Brancker, Ephraim had no ulterior motive, nor did it strike him at the time that his words might be the means of placing John in a very awkward position.

Two more constables had arrived by now. Mr. Mace planted one of them at the door of the strong room.

"Don't let anyone enter here without my permission," he said. The other man he sent in search of Mr. Brancker, while Mr. Judd left the Bank at the same time to break the news to Clement Hazeldine. At the doctor's wish Mrs. Sweet and Peggy had retired. They would be required later on, but at present they were only in the way.

"There seems to have been robbery here as well as murder," said Mr. Mace to Sweet. "I suppose you have no idea how it has all come about?"

Sweet had recovered his faculties in some measure by this time. Sorry though he was for Mr. Hazeldine, he yet felt that he himself must of necessity be a personage of some note for a considerable time to come. Now that he had partly recovered from his first fright, he was beginning to swell with a sense of self-importance, and he proceeded to put on his most official air, and began to enter into a long, rambling statement which might have lasted for half an hour had he............