Up and down on the pavement--bruised, bleeding, wrenched this way and that, but never letting go my hold, I felt my strength, already exhausted by the long toiling of the night, ebbing surely from me. Then in the moment of its final collapse the dreadful incubus was snatched from me, and I rose half-blinded to my feet to see Duke in the grasp of a couple of stalwart navvies, who on their way to work had come to my assistance. Trapped and overcome, he made no further struggle, but submitted quietly to his captors, his chest rising and falling convulsively. “Don’t let him go!” I panted; “he means murder!” “We’ve got him fast enough,” said one burly fellow. “Any bones broke, master?” “No,” said I; “I’m only a bit bruised.” “Renny,” said the prisoner, in a low, broken voice, “have you ever known me lie?” “Never. What then?” “Tell them to take their hands off and I’ll go.” “That won’t do. You may come back.” “Not till the inquest’s over. Is that a fair offer? I can do nothing here now. I only ask one thing--that I may speak a word, standing at the gate, to that skulking coward yonder. I swear I won’t touch him or pass inside the gate.” I turned to the two men. “I’ll answer for him now,” I said. “He never says what he doesn’t mean. You can let him go.” They did so reluctantly, remonstrating a little and ready to pounce on him at once did he show sign of breaking his parole. He picked up his hat and walked straight to the gate. Jason, who had been standing on the upmost step of the flight that led to the open door, regarding the strange struggle beneath him with starting eyes, moved a pace or two nearer shelter, with his head slewed backward in a hangdog fashion. “Mr. Trender,” said Duke, in a hideous, mocking voice, “Miss Dolly Mellison sends her compliments and she drowned herself last night.” I could see my brother stagger where he stood, and his face grow pale as a sheet. “I won’t discuss the matter further just now,” went on the cripple, “as I am under promise to these gentlemen. After the inquest I may, perhaps, have something to say to you.” He swept him a grotesque, ironical bow, another to us, and walked off down the street. When he was out of sight, I turned to the men, thanked them warmly for their assistance, recompensed them to the best of my ability and ran up the steps to the house. I found my brother inside, leaning white and shaky against the wall. I shut the door and addressed myself to him roughly. “Come,” I said. “There’s a necessity for action here. Where can we talk together?” “How did you find me?” he said, faintly. “It isn’t true, is it?--no--not there”--for I was turning to the door of a back room that seemed to promise privacy. “Where, then?” I said, impatiently. “Hurry, man! This is no time for dallying.” He tried to pull himself together. For the moment he seemed utterly unnerved. “Jason,” cried a voice from the very room I had approached. I dropped my stick with a crash on the floor.