“I shall tell him to let the poor devils go,” he was thinking, when Max began: “It’s the all-firedest, meanest thing I ever had anything to do with, and if I’d ’er known I’d have to do it, I’d never been so crazy for the office. No, sir! You must not blame me, I’d rather be thrashed. Yes, sir,—and I feel awfully sick at the pit of my stomach. Didn’t eat a thing for dinner, thinking of it, and not much for breakfast, I don’t believe a word of it, neither; none of us does. It’s a lie out of whole cloth.” He was mopping his wet face with his soiled hands and leaving streaks of dirt on it while Paul looked at him in amazement and Tom stood looking on as if ready to strike when the time came. “For Heaven’s sake, Max, what are you talking about. Come to the point. I’m in a hurry,” Paul said. “Yes,” Tom growled. “Come to the point and not act like a cat playing with a mouse.” “I wish I was a cat, or anything but the blooming fool I am,” Max gasped, and then nerving himself with a mighty effort, he said, “I’ve orders to arrest you. Oh, my Lord, my Lord.” The last words were wrung from him by the pallor on Paul’s face, as he grasped the carriage wheel for support. “Arrest me! For what?” he asked, his voice sounding to himself a hundred miles away. “You see,” Max continued, still husky and shaky, “it’s for shooting Mr. Percy.” He did not use the ugly word _murder_ and it was a singular fact that it was never used during the trying scenes which followed Paul’s arrest. It was sometimes killing, oftener shooting, but never murder. One could not associate that word with Paul, whose face was spotted with astonishment, but not with fear. How could he be afraid, knowing his own innocence? It had never occurred to him that Jack came to his death by any other hand than his own, and the intimation that he was to be arrested struck him like a thunderbolt. “What do you mean?” he asked. “Jack shot himself. The coroner’s inquest said so. I didn’t do it. I was not near there. I didn’t know it till some one told me. Who was it, Tom? Do you remember?”