While Dora was reflecting what answer to make, the gate opened--it was never locked now--and Mr. Carver, as black as a raven and as lean as a stick, made his appearance. He saw the couple on the lawn, and walked directly towards them, with what was meant for a smile on his grim face. Indeed, he had taken a great fancy to the young couple--to Dora in particular--and they both welcomed him heartily. "Well, my young friends," said he, when the first greetings were over, "I have come to learn your plans." "We were just making them," said Dora with a blush. "Allen wants me to give up the Red House and live in Canterbury when we are married." "I agree with him there, Miss Dora. The Red House is what the Scotch call uncanny. I should not like to live in it myself, with the knowledge that a brutal murder had been committed within its walls." "I feel the same as you do," replied Dora. "All the same, if I give it up I lose my poor two hundred a year, and shall go to Allen a pauper." "Dearest, as if that mattered! I can provide a home for you, and Mrs. Tice shall look after it." "Be comforted, Miss Dora," said Carver, smiling. "You will not go to Allen a pauper. You are entitled to fifty thousand pounds--your father's money." "But why, Mr. Carver? I did not find out who killed my father." "No; but Joad did, and the money came to him. On the day that he made his confession--as if anticipating his untimely end--he made his will, and left all the money to you." "All the money to Dora?" cried Allen joyfully. "Then she inherits her father's money, after all!" "Every penny of it," replied Carver gravely; "and I'm glad to say so." "But--but can I take it?" said Dora in a hesitating manner. "Tut, tut! Why not? You need have no compunction in doing so, my dear. As your father's daughter and sole offspring, he should have left it to you. It has only passed through Joad's hands on its way to your pockets. Take it by all means. I kept the telling of this for you as a pleasant surprise. Do not spoil my little plot by a refusal." "What do you say, Allen?" "I say with Mr. Carver, my dear, take it--it is lawfully yours." "Then I shall accept it. Fifty thousand pounds! O Allen!" Dora flung her arms round his neck. "You can go to London--we can take a house in Harley Street--you can become a famous physician--and--and----" "And all your geese will be swans!" laughed Carver kindly. But Allen did not laugh. He held Dora to his breast and kissed her. "My dearest," he said in a grave tone, "the money is not unwelcome; but a greater gift has come to me than that--the gift of a true-hearted, stanch woman, who will be a noble wife." "Hear, hear!" said Carver the misogamist. And so that disturbed chapter in their lives came to an end. THE END. BILLING AND SONS, PRINTERS, GUILDFORD. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Clock Struck One, by Fergus Hume