“I had realized that my life was threatened,” replied the Professor calmly. “As you have probably guessed, it was for the purpose of verifying the fact of Dr. Morlandson’s death that I came here.”

“ Dr. Morlandson is dead, but he left his vengeance behind him,” said the sailor sombrely. “You killed him as surely as though the law had taken its course upon your cruel verdict. He came here, a broken man, to die in solitude like a stricken animal. I met him, not a hundred yards from this very spot, a few days after he had come to live in the cottage. I was desperate that evening. I had murder in my soul, no matter why. I would have killed him then and there for what he might have had about him, but I was afraid. There was something about him that prevented me from touching him, I did not know what it was. He took me to the cottage with him, and talked to me all night. And at last I found out that he was in the grip of a hate greater than mine.