At last, with a wrench, the old man turned his head aside, and Claire uttered a low moan as she glanced from him to the bed and then back towards the window. "Ah!" she cried, starting forward, and, bending down beside the dressing-table, she picked up the casket that was lying half hidden by drapery upon the floor. But the jewel-casket was quite empty, and she set it down upon the table. It had been wrenched open with a chisel or knife-blade, and the loops of the lock had been torn out. "Shall we--a doctor--the constables?" he stammered. "I--I do not know," said Claire hoarsely, acting like one in a dream; and she staggered forward, kicking against something that had fallen near the casket. She involuntarily stooped to pick it up, but it had been jerked by her foot nearer to her father, who bent down with the quickness of a boy and snatched it up, hiding it hastily beneath his dressing-gown, but not so quickly that Claire could not see that it was a great clasp-knife. "What is that?" she cried sharply. "Nothing--nothing," he said. They stood gazing at each other for a few moments, and then the old man uttered a hoarse gasp. "Did--did you see what I picked up?" he whispered; and he caught her arm with his trembling hand. "Yes; it was a knife." "No," he cried wildly. "No; you saw nothing. You did not see me pick up that knife." "I did, father," said Claire, shrinking from him with an invincible repugnance. "You did not," he whispered. "You dare not say you did, when I say be silent." "Oh, father! father!" she cried with a burst of agony. "It means life or death," he whispered, grasping her arm so tightly that his fingers seemed to be turned to iron. "Come," he cried with more energy, "hold the light." He crossed the room and opened the folding-doors, going straight into the drawing-room, when the roar of the surf upon the shore grew louder, and as Claire involuntarily followed, she listened in a heavy-dazed way as her father pointed out that a chair had been overturned, and that the window was open and one of the flower-pots in the balcony upset. "The jasmine is torn away from the post and balustrade," he said huskily; "someone must have climbed up there." Claire did not speak, but listened to him as he grew more animated now, and talked quickly. "Let us call up Isaac and Morton," he said. "We must have help. The doctor should be fetched, and--and a constable." Claire gazed at him wildly. "Did--did you hear anything?" he said hurriedly, as he closed the folding-doors. "I was asleep," said Claire, starting and shuddering as she heard his words. "I thought I heard a cry." "Yes, a cry," he said; "I thought I heard a cry and I dressed quickly and was going to see, when--when you came to me. Recollect that you will be called up to speak, my child--an inquest--that is all you know. You went in and found Lady Teigne dead, and you came and summoned me. That is all you know."