MR. ROBERT POUNDS had had a very pleasant journey down from London, and he had enjoyed the society of his companion so much that he could have wished the journey to have been three times as long. But now that a lucky chance had enabled him to defeat a wicked and cruel plot, and to restore a temporarily foolish young lady to her distressed father, he had to turn once more to the more serious affairs of his calling, and if possible help justice to exact her due for the terrible crime done in the Black Lake Wood.
Piece by piece he began to fit in the parts of the puzzle. The victim of the crime was hurrying to the scene of an encounter in which his daughter’s lover was concerned, when in a lonely spot of his estate he encountered somebody who slew him. Under a bundle of faggots which it was
