The immediate result of the crime was that Laura, on seeing the dead body of her brother, and learning that the man she loved had murdered him, received such a shock that within three months she was dead. As her will in favour of Ellen had never been revoked, the former housekeeper came in for all her money. Also, as no male heirs of the Kirkstone family were left, Miss Gilmar, by the will of her great-great-grandfather, and as the daughter of John Kirkstone's paternal aunt; inherited the estates. Therefore Ellen Gilmar lost the man she loved, but found herself a wealthy and lonely woman. Only one thing she feared, and that was a violent death; for Dean had declared that his unjust sentence was due to her lying evidence, and that, if his life were spared, he would some day kill her. Apparently he had done so. Such was the statement of the Kirkstone Hall Crime, which was undoubtedly in some secret way connected with the more recent murder of Ellen Gilmar at Grangebury. The question was--did Dean strangle her out of revenge, since he had escaped from prison about the time Miss Gilmar left the Hall on her lonely wanderings, and was at large to carry out his threat? If Dean murdered Kirkstone he would have no compunction in committing a second crime to revenge himself on the woman who had delivered him into the hands of Justice. If Dean did not murder Kirkstone it might be that, enraged at his unjust sentence, he had killed Miss Gilmar to punish her for the lying evidence which had smirched his name and ruined his life. In either case there was the threat to murder Miss Gilmar, which, on the face of it, implicated the convict in the Grangebury murder. Deeming the man guilty of the first crime, Parge declared that he had committed the second. Putting aside the first crime, Gebb maintained that Dean was innocent It now remains to discover which of the two is in the right. CHAPTER VII COMMENTS ON THE CRIME It must not be supposed that in informing Gebb of these details in connection with a long-forgotten crime, Parge gave the exact context of the newspaper reports. He used them rather as notes to refresh his memory, and detailed the somewhat barren information in a conversational manner, adding, suppressing, and amplifying evidence in the way most necessary to convey a clear idea of the case to his hearer. Yet at the conclusion of his reading, or rather narrative, Gebb was not satisfied. To him the case seemed incomplete. "I know a good deal of what happened before the murder," he said bluntly, "but very little about the crime itself." "You know all that was reported in the newspapers," replied the fat man, casting the heavy book on the table with some irritation. "Probably; but now I wish to know such details as were not given to the public You can supply them." "Certainly! Ask what you like, and I'll answer. You'll arrive at an understanding of the case soonest that way."