'George,' he said, with a serious look on his usually merry face, 'were you on Southberry Heath on the night that poor devil was murdered?' 'Oh, yes,' replied Captain Pendle, with some wonder at the question. 'I rode over to the gipsy camp to buy a particular ring from Mother Jael.' 'For Miss Arden, I suppose?' 'Yes; I wished for a necromantic symbol of our engagement.' 'Did you hear or see anything of the murder?' 'Good Lord, no!' cried the startled George, sitting up straight. 'I should have been at the inquest had I seen the act, or even heard the shot.' 'Did you carry a pistol with you on that night?' 'As I wasn't riding through Central Africa, I did not. What is the meaning of these mysterious questions?' Brace answered this query by slipping his hand into his breast-pocket and producing therefrom a neat little pistol, toy-like, but deadly enough in the hand of a good marksman. 'Is this yours?' he asked, holding it out for Captain Pendle's inspection. 'Certainly it is,' said George, handling the weapon; 'here are my initials on the butt. Where did you get this?' 'It was found by Mother Jael near the spot where Jentham was murdered.' Captain Pendle clapped down the pistol on the table with an ejaculation of amazement. 'Was he shot with this, Harry?' 'Without doubt!' replied Brace, gravely. 'Therefore, as it is your property, I wish to know how it came to be used for that purpose.' 'Great Scott, Brace! you don't think that I killed the blackguard?' 'I think nothing so ridiculous,' protested Sir Harry, testily. 'You talk as if you did, though,' retorted George, smartly. 'I thrashed that Jentham beast for insulting Mab, but I didn't shoot him.' 'But the pistol is yours.' 'I admit that, but--Good Lord!' cried Captain Pendle, starting to his feet. 'What now?' asked Brace, turning pale and cold on the instant. 'Gabriel! Gabriel! I--I gave this pistol to him.' 'You gave this pistol to Gabriel? When? Where?' 'In London,' explained George, rapidly. 'When he was in Whitechapel I knew that he went among a lot of roughs and thieves, so I insisted that he should carry this pistol for his protection. He was unwilling to do so at first, but in the end I persuaded him to slip it into his pocket. I have not seen it from that day to this.' 'And it was found near Jentham's corpse,' said Brace, with a groan. The two young men looked at one another in horrified silence, the same thoughts in the mind of each. The pistol had been in the possession of Gabriel; and Gabriel on the night of the murder had been in the vicinity of the crime. 'It--it is impossible,' whispered George, almost inaudibly, 'Gabriel can explain.' 'Gabriel _must_ explain,' said Brace, firmly; 'it is a matter of life and death!' CHAPTER XXXIII MR BALTIC EXPLAINS HIMSELF