of course pity was the first feeling; but, by the time mrs. gaunt revived, her fainting, so soon after mr. atkins's proposal, had produced a sinister effect on the minds of all present; and every face showed it, except the wary houseman's.

on her retiring, it broke out first in murmurs, then in plain words.

as for mr. atkins, he now showed the moderation of an able man who feels he has a strong cause.

he merely said, "i think there should be constables about, in case of an escape being attempted; but i agree with mr. houseman, that your worships will be quite justified in taking bail, provided the corpus delicti should not be found. gentlemen, you were most of you neighbors and friends of the deceased, and are, i am sure, lovers of justice: i do entreat you to aid me in searching that piece of water, by the side of which the deceased gentleman was heard to cry for help; and, much i fear, he cried in vain."

the persons thus appealed to entered into the matter with all the ardor of just men, whose curiosity as well as justice is inflamed.

a set of old rusty drags was found on the premises: and men went punting up and down the mere, and dragged it.

rude hooks were made by the village blacksmith, and fitted to cart-ropes; another boat was brought to hernshaw in a wagon, and all that afternoon the bottom of the mere was raked; and some curious things fished up. but no dead man.

the next clay a score of amateur drags-men were out: some throwing their drags from the bridge; some circulating in boats, and even in large tubs.

and, meantime, mr. atkins and his crew went steadily up and down, dragging every foot of those placid waters.

they worked till dinner time, and brought up a good copper pot with two handles, a horse's head, and several decayed trunks of trees, which had become saturated, and sunk to the bottom.

at about three in the afternoon, two boys who, for want of a boat, were dragging from the bridge, found something heavy but elastic at the end of their drag: they pulled up eagerly, and a thing like a huge turnip, half gnawed, came up, with a great bob, and blasted their sight.

they let go, drags and all, and stood shrieking, and shrieking.

those who were nearest them called out, and asked what was the matter; but the boys did not reply, and their faces showed so white, that a woman, who saw them, screamed to sir. atkins, and said she was sure those boys had seen something out of the common.

mr. atkins came up, and found the boys blubbering. he encouraged them, and they told him a fearful thing had come up; it was like a man's head and shoulders all scooped out and gnawed by the fishes; and had torn the drags out of their hands.

mr. atkins made them tell him the exact place; and was soon upon it with his boat.

the water here was very deep, and though the boys kept pointing to the very spot, the drags found nothing for some time.

but at last they showed, by their resistance, that they had clawed hold of something.

"draw slowly," said sir. atkins, "and, if it is, be men, and hold fast."

the men drew slowly, slowly, and presently there rose to the surface a thing to strike terror and loathing into the stoutest heart.

the mutilated remains of a human face and body.

the greedy pike had cleared, not the features only, but the entire flesh off the face; but had left the hair, and the tight skin of the forehead, though their teeth had raked this last. the remnants they had left made what they had mutilated doubly horrible; since now it was not a skull; not a skeleton; but a face and a man gnawed down to the bones and hair and feet. these last were in stout shoes that resisted even those voracious teeth; and a leathern stock had offered some little protection to the throat.

the men groaned, and hid their faces with one hand, and pulled softly to the shore with the other; and then, with half-averted faces, they drew the ghastly remains and fluttering rags gently and reverently to land.

mr. atkins yielded to nature, and was violently sick at the sight he had searched for so eagerly.

as soon as he recovered his powers, he bade the constables guard the body (it was a body, in law), and see that no one laid so much as a finger on it until some magistrate had taken a deposition. he also sent a messenger to mr. houseman, telling him the corpus delicti was found. he did this, partly to show that gentleman he was right in his judgment, and partly out of common humanity; since, after this discovery, mr. houseman's client was sure to be tried for her life.

a magistrate soon came, and viewed the remains, and took careful notes of the state in which they were found.

houseman came, and was much affected, both by the sight of his dead friend, so mutilated, and by the probable consequences to mrs. gaunt. however, as lawyers fight very hard, he recovered himself enough to remark that there were no marks of violence before death, and insisted on this being inserted in the magistrate's notes.

an inquest was ordered next day, and meantime mrs. gaunt was told she could not quit the upper apartments of her own house. two constables were placed on the ground floor night and day.

next day the remains were removed to the little inn, where griffith had spent so many jovial hours; laid on a table, and covered with a white sheet.

the coroner's jury sat in the same room, as was then the custom, and the evidence i have already noticed was gone into and the finding of the body deposed to. the jury, without hesitation, returned a verdict of willful murder.

mrs. gaunt was then brought in. she came, white as a ghost, leaning upon houseman's shoulder.

upon her entering, a juryman, by a humane impulse, drew the sheet over the remains again.

the coroner, according to the custom of the day, put a question to mrs. gaunt, with the view of eliciting her guilt. if i remember right, he asked her how she came to be out of doors so late on the night of the murder. mrs. gaunt, however, was in no condition to answer queries. i doubt if she even heard this one. her lovely eyes, dilated with horror, were fixed on that terrible sheet, with a stony glance. "show me," she gasped, "and let me die too."

the jurymen looked, with doubtful faces, at the coroner, he bowed a grave assent.

the nearest juryman withdrew the sheet.

now, the belief was not yet extinct that the dead body shows some signs of its murderer's approach.

so every eye glared on her and it by turns, as she, with dilated, horror-stricken orbs, looked on that awful thing.

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