Produced by Charles Bowen from page scans provided by Google (Oxford University) Transcriber's Notes: 1. Page scan source: Google Books https://books.google.com/books?id=fhsCAAAAQAAJ (Oxford University) THE MYSTERIES OF HERON DYKE. A Novel of Incident. By the Author of "In the Dead of Night," "Brought to Light," etc. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. III. LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON, Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen. 1880. [_All Rights Reserved_.] CONTENTS OF VOL. III. CHAPTER I. WHO DID IT? II. WHAT PRISCILLA PEYTON HAD TO TELL. III. MALACHITE AND GOLD. IV. MR. CHARLES PLACKETT IS PUZZLED. V. A FRUITLESS ERRAND. VI. COUNSEL TAKEN WITH MR. MEATH. VII. A STRANGER AT THE ROSE AND CROWN. VIII. TOGETHER AT LAST. IX. IN THE DUSK OF EVENING. X. THE TRUTH AT LAST. XI. CONVERGING THREADS. XII. MORE SURPRISES THAN ONE. XIII. THE LAST MYSTERY SOLVED. THE MYSTERIES OF HERON DYKE. CHAPTER I. WHO DID IT? Never as long as Ella Winter lives will she forget the picture that imprinted itself on her brain, as instantaneously as though it had been photographed there, at the moment when, startled by Aaron Stone's cry, she stepped out of the window of the sitting-room. On the borders of the lawn, at the foot of a large holly-bush, the leaves of which glistened brightly in the morning sun, knelt Aaron, his rugged features working convulsively, his trembling arms twined round the unconscious form of him who lay there in all the moveless majesty of death. One glance at the white set face, and Ella knew that the wanderer, whose absence had caused so much speculation, had come back at last, but that whatever secrets he might have in his keeping would remain secrets still, and would never be whispered in mortal ear. The pulses of her life stood still as she gazed in her shock of bewilderment. The old man's voice broke the spell: he saw her standing there. "Oh, ma'am, my dear young mistress, it is my boy! My boy come back to me--dead. There has been murder done here!" A shudder ran through Ella. Murder! Was it true?--or was old Aaron demented? She rushed indoors to the sitting-room, ringing its bells as they had never been rung before; and then she sank into a chair. Never had Ella Winter been so near fainting. The servants came running in, and she strove to collect her thoughts. Some one ran to the huge bell that rang in the stable-yard, and sounded a peal upon it. It brought forth the coachman, Barnet. John Tilney came up with one of his men.