Colwyn did not reply. It was useless to point out that there is no such thing as free will in human affairs, and that if Philip Heredith had been impelled to his crime by the evil force of passions which were stronger than the restraining power of human reason, he must pay the full price demanded by humanity for the only safeguard of its supremacy. There was the sound of an opening door and footsteps outside, and a voice called: "Phil! Vincent! Where are you?" "They have returned!" Musard excitedly exclaimed. "What are they to be told?" "I cannot say," replied Colwyn, casting a sombre glance at Phil's drooping and motionless figure. There was something new in his posture--a stark stillness which arrested his eye. He stepped quickly to his side and bent over him. "He is dead," he said. "Dead? My God! Impossible!" "It is quite true. It is better so." "Vincent!" Miss Heredith's voice sounded not far away. "She is coming here. Quick, what am I to say to her?" "I cannot tell you," responded Colwyn, with another glance at the still form. "It was he who called me in to solve this mystery, and I have done what he asked. I will leave you to tell her what you will, but I cannot keep silence afterwards where the liberty of innocent people is involved. Justice is as impersonal as Truth herself." "Vincent!" This time the voice sounded just outside the door. "I must stop her--she must not come in here," said Musard, starting up. But he was too late. The door opened, and Miss Heredith stood in the doorway. Her startled eyes took in the agitated face of Musard, and then travelled to the drooping attitude of the figure at the table. She went quickly past the two men, and bent over her nephew. As she did so, she sobbed aloud. All the pity and pathos of a woman, all the misery and mystery of a broken heart, welled forth in her faint mournful cry. "This will kill her," said Musard savagely. But Colwyn felt that it would not be so. As he turned from the room, leaving the living and the dead together, he knew that when the first bitterness of the shock was over, and she was faced again with the consciousness of duty, she would call on her abiding faith to help her to wear, without flinching, the heavy grey garment of life. THE END By REES & WATSON THE MYSTERY OF THE DOWNS THE HAMPSTEAD MYSTERY