The verdict of the coroners jury? Against whom must this verdict be given? Lyon Berners shuddered away from answering this question. But it was also possible that before this the murderer might have been discovered and arrested. Should this surmise prove to be a fact, oh, what relief from anguish, what a happy return home for Sybil! If not--if the verdict should be rendered against _her_,--nothing but flight and exile remained to them. While Lyon Berners wandered up and down like a restless ghost among the gravestones, his attention was suddenly arrested by the sound of a crackling tread breaking through the bushes. He turned quickly, expecting to see Captain Pendleton, but he saw his own servant instead. "Joe!" he exclaimed, in a tone of surprise. "Marser!" responded the man, in a voice of grief. "You come from Captain Pendleton? What message does he send? How is it at the house? Has the coroner come? And oh! has any clue been found to the murderer?" anxiously inquired Mr. Berners. "No, marser, no clue an't been found to no murderer. But the house up there is full of crowners and constables, as if it was the county court house, and Cappin Pendulum managing everything." "He sent you to me?" "No, marser, nor likewise knowed I come." "Joe! _who_ has sent you here?" inquired Mr. Berners. "No one hasn't, marser," answered Joe, dashing the tears from his eyes, and then proceeding to unstrap a large hamper that he carried upon his shoulders. "No one! Then how came you here?" demanded Mr. Berners, uneasily. Now, instead of answering his master's question, Joe sat down upon his hamper, and wept aloud. "What is the matter with you?" inquired Mr. Berners. "You axed me how I comed here," sobbed Joe, "just as if I could keep away when she and you was here in trouble, and a-wanting some one to look arter you." "But how did you know we were here?" anxiously questioned Mr. Berners. "I wa'n't a listening at key-holes, nor likewise a-eaves-dropping, which I considers beneath a gentleman to do; but I was a-looking to the back shutters, to see as they was all safe arter the fright we got, and I hearn somebody a-talking, which I was sure was more bugglers; so I made free to wait and hear what they said." "It was Captain Pendleton and myself, I suppose," said Mr. Berners, much annoyed. "Jes so, sir; it wer Capping Pendulum and yourself, which it hurt me to the heart as you should have trusted into Capping Pendulum and not into me--a old and valleyed servant of the family." "And so, Joe, you overheard the whole matter?" "Which I did, sir, and shocked I was to think as any false charges should cause my dear young missus to run away from home in the night-time, like a fusible slave. And hurt I was to think you didn't trust into me instead of into he." "Well, Joe, it appears to me that you were resolved to take our trust, if we did not give it to you. What brought you here this morning?"