It was late that night that a startled knocking came at the door of Elmdene. Laura had been in her room all day, and Robert was smoking his pipe by the fire, when this harsh and sudden summons broke in upon his thoughts. There in the porch was Jones, the head-butler of the Hall, hatless, scared, with the raindrops shining in the lamplight upon his smooth, bald head.  
“If you please, Mr. McIntyre, sir, would it trouble you to step up to the Hall?” he cried. “We are all frightened, sir, about master.”
 
Robert caught up his hat and started at a run, the frightened butler heavily beside him. It had been a day of excitement and disaster. The young artist's heart was heavy within him, and the shadow of some crowning trouble seemed to have fallen upon his soul.
 
“What is the matter with your master, then?” he asked, as he slowed down into a walk.
 
“We don't know, sir; but we can't get an answer when we knock at the laboratory door. Yet he's there, for it's locked on the inside. It has given us all a scare, sir, that, and his goin's-on during the day.”
 
“His goings-on?”
 
“Yes, sir; for he came back this morning like a man demented, a-talkin' to himself, and with his eyes starin' so that it was dreadful to look at the poor dear gentleman. Then he walked about the passages a long time, and he wouldn't so much as look at his , but he went into the museum, and gathered all his jewels and things, and carried them into the laboratory. We don't know what he's done since then, sir, but his furnace has been a-roarin', and his big chimney spoutin' smoke like a Birmingham factory. When night came we could see his figure against the light, a-workin' and a-heavin' like a man . No dinner would he have, but work, and work, and work. Now it's all quiet, and the furnace cold, and no smoke from above, but we can't get no answer from him, sir, so we are scared, and has gone for the police, and I came away for you.”
 
They reached the Hall as the butler finished his explanation, and there outside the laboratory door stood the little knot of footmen and ostlers, while the village policeman, who had just arrived, was holding his bull's-eye to the keyhole, and endeavouring to peep through.
 
“The key is half-turned,” he said. “I can't see nothing except just the light.”
 
“Here's Mr. McIntyre,” cried half-a-dozen voices, as Robert came forward.
 
“We'll have to beat the door in, sir,” said the policeman. “We can't get any sort of answer, and there's something wrong.”
 
Twice and thrice they threw their united weights against it until at last with a sharp snap the lock broke, and they crowded into the narrow passage. The inner door was ajar, and the laboratory lay before them.
 
In the centre was an enormous heap of grey ash, reaching up half-way to the ceiling. Beside it was another heap, much smaller, of some brilliant dust, which brightly in the rays of the electric light. All round was a bewildering of broken jars, shattered bottles, cracked , and wires, all and draggled. And there in the midst of this universal ruin, leaning back in his chair with his hands clasped upon his lap, and the easy pose of one who rests after hard work safely carried through, sat Haw, the master of the house, and the richest of mankind, with the pallor of death upon his face. So easily he sat and so naturally, with such a expression upon his features, that it was not until they raised him, and touched his cold and limbs, that they could realise that he had indeed passed away.
 
and slowly they bore him to his room, for he was beloved by all who had served him. Robert alone lingered with the policeman in the laboratory. Like a man in a dream he wandered about, at the universal destruction. A large broad-headed hammer lay upon the ground, and with this Haw had set himself to destroy all his , having first used his electrical machines to reduce to protyle all the stock of gold which he had accumulated. The treasure-room which had so dazzled Robert consisted now of merely four bare walls, while the gleaming dust upon the floor proclaimed the fate of that magnificent collection of which had alone amounted to a r............