“That decided me. I tested the machinery, and found the bucket drop like oil. A child could have worked it. I determined to go down into that well, and find out, if I could, what a little fishing at its bottom might bring to light. You see, the discovery of the grotto was an accident. I’d been looking for murder, not suicide, and the truth met me, like you, sir, half way. Only God or a Jury can give it a name. That was no earlier than this morning, when I got over a couple of the locals, and had the cover off and was let down. _He’d_ never wanted the cover off. The man must have been built of stone and steel. To sit there those days and nights famished and deserted, waiting for his release that never came! The most of us, I think, would have dropped into the water and ended it long before he did. But he always had his revolver, that’s true. He could afford to stake up to the last chance. I don’t know how long he himself had known about the grotto; but he only let his wife into the secret of it a fortnight ago. He’d seen or heard from the woman Carey, as far as I can gather, and thought as we should be down upon him at once. He bolted for his hiding at the first in a panic, arranging with Mrs D. that she was to come and wind him up at evenfall if nothing happened; and that was the last the world saw of him. It come on the woman in a moment as how she’d got him in a trap, and her chance was given her at last. I had it all out of her, while she kept the reason to speak it, and that wasn’t long. When she saw _him_ being brought in, she broke out like a screech-owl; and a mercy for her if she could be turned into one in actual fact, poor creatur’.” “Jannaway,” said Mr Shapter, “I owe you an apology.” “I’ll cancel the debt, sir,” answered the inspector. “After all, your saying _you_ couldn’t understand me was a compliment.” CHAPTER XXXIII. A REST BY THE WAY My story draws to a close. I linger only yet a little by the way--a balmy breathing space, a last restful interlude between the acts--before I rally to the final struggle. Before the inquest could be held, my unhappy mother’s complaint had so increased upon her that it became an imperative necessity to remove her to the asylum from which her poor broken spirit was only to be released by death. The whole painful business, with the material difficulties it entailed upon me at a crucial pass, was undertaken for me by Mr Shapter (acting on my good Johnny’s private instructions) with the most feeling tact and helpfulness. These are matters to be touched upon with no less delicacy than was shown in their accommodation. Never has man been blessed with a finer and more generous-hearted friend than I.