The Argosy — page 206: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

190 The Master of Greylands. finished it. After that, I loaded it, took it to the door, and fired it off into the air. That was the shot you heard, landlord.” “And the cry? ” ‘“Never was any cry to hear. "Iwas fancy. I made none, and I know I heard none. This morning word was brought me that Mr. Castlemaine had been fetched to Stilborough, and I took out Ben Little in the boat instead.” But this explanation did not go for so much as it might have done. The commodore, was in the habit of telling the most incredible sea yarns ; and faith, in that respect, was rather wanting in him. Moreover, the strong impression on John Bent’s mind was, that it was a pistol- shot he had heard, not a gun. Above all, there remained the one broad fact of the disappearance : Anthony Castlemaine had been alive and well and amidst them the previous night, and to-day he was not. Altogether the commotion, the dread, and the sense of some mysterious evil increased ; and lying upon all hearts, more or less, was a suspicion of the part played in it by Mr. Castlemaine. Dusk was approaching when a horseman rode past the Dolphin: Mr. Harry Castlemaine on his return from Newerton. Seeing what looked like an unusual bustle round the inn door, he pulled up. Molly ran out. ‘‘What’s agate?” asked Mr. Harry. ‘You seem to have got all the world and his wife here.” ‘It’s feared as it’s murder, sir,” returned simple Molly. “ Murder /” “Well, sir, Mr. Anthony Castlemaine went into the Fnar’s Keep last night, and have never come out again. It’s thought he was shot there.” ‘Shot! Who shot him ?” } ‘$?Tain’t known, sir. Some says it was Mr. Castlemaine that was in there along of him. A dreadful cry was heard.” Harry Castlemaine drew up his haughty head. But that she was a woman, ignorant and stupid, and evidently unconscious of all the words might imply, he might have struck her as she stood. ‘And there’s dreadful news in from Stilborough, Mr. Harry, sir,” she resumed. ‘Mr. Peter Castlemaine was found dead in his chamber last night. He died quite sudden, poor gentleman, shut up in his room, and not a soul anigh him to watch his last breath.” It was almost too much. His uncle dead, his cousin disappeared, his father suspected he knew not yet of what! Never a more cruel moment than that had dawned for Harry Castlemaine. (Zo be Continued.) ECORNICLOOO SS (C(O) in —_)