"Go this way. Here is his wheel. Take it. Go south—the lake shore—the Indian Mound." A moment later a young man with pallid face, set mouth and tragic eyes was flying toward the Indian Mound upon a swift wheel, and in the school-room, prone upon the floor, a girl lay in a death-like swoon. [Pg 28] [Pg 28] CHAPTER III. NEMESIS. CHAPTER III. NEMESIS. "Mr. Brierly, are you strong enough to bear a second shock? I must confer with you before—before we remove the body." It was Doctor Barnes who thus addressed Robert Brierly, who, after the first sight of the outstretched figure upon the lake shore, and the first shock of horror and anguish, had turned away from the group hovering about the doctor, as he knelt beside the dead, to face his grief alone. Doctor Barnes, besides being a skilled physician, possessed three other qualities necessary to a successful career in medicine—he was prompt to act, practical and humane. Robert Brierly was leaning against a tall tree, his back toward that group by the water's edge, and his face pressed against the tree's rugged trunk. He lifted his head as the doctor spoke, and turned a white, set face[Pg 29] toward him. The look in his dark eyes was assurance sufficient that he was ready to listen and still able to manfully endure another blow. [Pg 29] The two men moved a few steps away, and then the doctor said: "I must be brief. You know, do you not, the theory, that of these men, as to the cause of this calamity?" "It was an accident, of course." "They make it that, or suicide." "Never! Impossible! My brother was a God-fearing man, a happy man." "Still, there is a bullet-hole just where self-inflicted wounds are oftenest made."
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