"Beng in tutes bukko!" swore Chaldea in good Romany, meaning that she wished the devil was in some one's body. And she meant what she said, and cared little which of the two men's interior was occupied by the enemy of mankind, since she hated both. The girl was disappointed to think that Lambert should escape from her , and that Garvington's production of one revolver and his that Silver had the other tended to this end. "May the pair of you burn in hell," she cried, taking to English, so that they could understand the insult. "Ashes may you be in the One's furnace."  
Lambert his shoulders, as he quite understood her feelings, and did not intend to lower himself by correcting her. He addressed himself to his cousin and turned his back on the gypsy. "Silver shot Hubert Pine," he repeated, with his eyes on Garvington's craven face.
 
"It's impossible—impossible!" returned the other hurriedly. "Silver was shut up in the house with the rest. I saw to the windows and doors myself, along with the butler and footmen. At the inquest—"
 
"Never mind about the inquest. I know what you said there, and I am now beginning to see why you said it."
 
"What the devil do you mean?"
 
"I mean," stated the other, staring hard at him, "that you knew Silver was guilty when the inquest took place, and screened him for some reason."
 
"I didn't know; I swear I didn't know!" stuttered Garvington, wiping his heated face, and with his lower lip trembling.
 
"You must have done so," replied Lambert . "This bullet will fit both the revolvers I gave you, and as you passed on one to Silver—"
 
"Rubbish! Bosh! Nonsense!" the little man incoherently. "Until you brought the bullet I never knew that it would fit the revolver."
 
This was true, as Lambert admitted. However, he saw that Garvington was afraid for some reason, and pressed his advantage. "Now that you see how it fits, you must be aware that it could only have been fired from the revolver which you gave Silver."
 
"I don't see that," protested Garvington. "That bullet may fit many revolvers."
 
Lambert shook his head. "I don't think so. I had that of revolvers especially manufactured, and the make is . I am quite prepared to swear that the bullet would fit no other weapon. And—and"—he hesitated, then faced the girl, who lingered, and disappointed. "You can go, Chaldea," said Lambert, pointing to the French window of the library, which was wide open.
 
The gypsy sauntered toward it, clutching her shawl and her white teeth together. "Oh, I go my ways, my rye, but I have not done with you yet, may the big devil rack my bones if I have. You win to-day—I win to-morrow, and so good day to you, and curses on you for a bad one. The devil is a nice character—and that's you!" she screamed, beside herself with rage. "The puro beng is a fino mush, if you will have the kalo jib!" and with a wild cry of a banshee she disappeared and was seen running unsteadily across the lawn. Lambert shrugged his shoulders again and turned to his cousin, who had sat down with a dogged look on his fat face. "I have got rid of her because I wish to save the family name from disgrace," said Lambert quietly.
 
"There is no disgrace on my part. Remember to whom you are speaking."
 
"I do. I speak to the head of the family, worse luck! You have done your best to trail our name in the mud. You altered a check which Pine gave you so as to get more money; you forged his name to a mortgage—"
 
"Lies, lies, the lies of Agnes!" screamed Garvington, jumping up and shaking his fist in anger. "The wicked—"
 
"Speak properly of my wife, or I'll your neck," said Lambert sharply. "As to what she told me being lies, it is only too true, as you know. I read the letter you wrote confessing that you had Pine here to be shot by telling falsehoods about Agnes and me."
 
"I only lured him to get his arm broken so that I might nurse him when he was ill and get some money," Garvington, sitting down again.
 
"I am well aware of what you did and how you did it. But you gave that forged letter to Silver so that it might be passed on to Pine."
 
"I didn't! I didn't! I didn't! I didn't!"
 
"You did. And because Silver knew too much you gave him the Abbot's Wood Cottage at a cheap rent, or at no rent at all, for all I know. To be quite plain, Garvington, you with Silver to have Pine killed."
 
"Winged—only winged, I tell you. I never shot him."
 
"Your did."
 
"He's not my accomplice. He was in the house—everything was locked up."
 
"By you," said Lambert quickly. "So it was easy for you to leave a window unfastened, so that Silver might get outside to hide in the shrubbery."
 
"Oh!" Garvington jumped up again, looking both pale and wicked. "You want to put a rope round my neck, curse you."
 
"That's a melodramatic speech which is not true," replied the other coldly. "For I want to save you, or, rather, our name, from disgrace. I won't call in the police"—Garvington at this word—"because I wish to the matter up. But since Chaldea and Silver accuse me and accuse Agnes of getting rid of Pine so that we might marry, it is necessary that I should learn the exact truth."
 
"I don't know it. I know nothing more than I have confessed."
 
"You are such a that I can't believe you. However, I shall go at once to Silver and you shall come with me."
 
"I shan't!" Garvington, who was overfed and flabby and unable to hold his own against a man, settled himself in his chair and looked as as a battery .
 
"Oh, yes, you will, you little swine," said Lambert freezingly cold.
 
"How dare you call me names?"
 
"Names! If I called you those you deserved I should have to the vocabulary of a Texan muledriver. How such a beast as you ever got into our family I can't conceive."
 
"I am the head of the family and I order you to leave the room."
 
"Oh, you do, do you? Very good. Then I go straight to Wanbury and shall tell what I have discovered to Darby."
 
"No! No! No! No!" Garvington, cornered at last, sprang from his chair and made for his cousin with unsteady legs. "It might be unpleasant."
 
"I daresay—to you. Well, will you come with me to Abbot's Wood?"
 
"Yes," whimpered Garvington. "Wait till I get my cap and stick, curse you, for an beast. You don't know what you're doing."
 
"Ah! then you do know something likely to reveal the truth."
 
"I don't—I swear I don't! I only—"
 
"Oh, damn you, get your cap, and let us be off," broke in Lambert angrily, "for I can't be here all day listening to your lies."
 
Garvington and out of the room, closely followed by his cousin, who did not think it wise to lose sight of so shifty a person. In a few minutes they were out of the house and took the path leading from the blue door to the postern gate in the brick wall surrounding the park. It was a frosty, sunny day, with a hard blue sky, overarching a wintry landscape. A slight fall of snow had powdered the ground with a film of white, and the men's feet drummed loudly on the iron earth, which was in the grip of the frost. Garvington complained of the cold, although he had on a fur overcoat which made him look like a baby bear.
 
"You'll give me my death of cold, dragging me out like this," he moaned, as he beside his cousin. "I believe you want me to take so that I may die and leave you the title."
 
"I should at least respect it more than you do," said Lambert with scorn. "Why can't you be a man instead of a thing on two legs? If you did die no one would miss you but cooks and provision ."
 
Garvington gave him a vicious glance from his little pig's eyes, and longed to be tall, and strong, and daring, so that he might knock him down. But he knew that Lambert was muscular and , and would probably break his neck if it came to a . Therefore, as the little lord had a great regard for his neck, he judged it best to yield to superior force, and trotted along obediently enough. Also he became aware within himself that it would be necessary to explain to Silver how he had come to betray him, and that would not be easy. Silver would be certain to make himself extremely disagreeable. Altogether the walk was not a pleasant one for the sybarite.
 
The Abbot's Wood looked bare and lean with the leaves stripped from its many trees. Occasionally there was a fir, clothed in dark green , but for the most part the branches of the trees were naked, and quivered constantly in the breeze. Even on the of the wood one could see right into the centre where the black monoliths—they looked black against the snow—reared themselves grimly. To the right there was a glimpse of gypsy fires and tents and , and the sound of the Romany tongue was borne toward them through the clear atmosphere. On such a day it was easy both to see and hear for long distances, and for this reason Chaldea became aware that the two men were walking toward the cottage.
 
The girl, angry that she had been unable to bring Lambert to book, had sauntered back to the camp, but had just reached it when she caught sight of the tall figure and the short one. In a moment she knew that Lambert and his cousin were making for Silver's , which was just what she had expected them to do. At once she determined to again adopt her former tactics, which had been successful in enabling her to overhear the conversation between Lambert and Lady Agnes, and, following at a respectful distance, she waited for her chance. It came when the pair entered the cottage, for then Chaldea ran swiftly in a circle toward the monoliths, and down behind one. While peering from behind this shelter, she saw Silver pass the window of the studio, and felt certain that the interview, would take place in that room. Like a serpent, as she was, the girl crawled and through the frozen vegetation and finally managed to get under the window without being observed. The window was closed, but by pressing her ear close to the woodwork she was enabled to hear a great deal, if not all. speaking, Chaldea had truly believed that Lambert had shot Pine, but now that he had disproved the charge so easily, she became desperately anxious to learn the truth. Lambert had escaped her, but she thought that it might be possible to his wife in the crime, which would serve her purpose of injuring him just as well.
 
Silver was not surprised to see his landlord, as it seemed that Garvington paid him frequent visits. But he certainly showed an uneasy when Lambert stalked in behind the fat little man. Silver was also small, and also cowardly, and also not quite at rest in his conscience, so he shivered when he met the very direct gaze of his unwelcome visitor.
 
"You have come to look at your old house, Mr. Lambert," he remarked, when the two made themselves comfortable by the studio fire.
 
"Not at all. I have come to see you," was the grim response.
 
"That is an unexpected honor," said Silver uneasily, and his eyes sought those of Lord Garvington, who was spreading out his hands to the ............