“Quickly ascertaining whence these cries proceeded, they hurried on at a gallop, and came up—­quite close to the boundary of Lord Arthur Skelmerton’s grounds—­upon a group of three men, two of whom seemed to be wrestling vigorously with one another, whilst the third was lying face downwards on the ground.  As soon as the constables drew near, one of the wrestlers shouted more vigorously, and with a certain tone of authority: 

“‘Here, you fellows, hurry up, sharp; the brute is giving me the slip!’

“But the brute did not seem inclined to do anything of the sort; he certainly extricated himself with a violent jerk from his assailant’s grasp, but made no attempt to run away.  The constables had quickly dismounted, whilst he who had shouted for help originally added more quietly: 

“’My name is Skelmerton.  This is the boundary of my property.  I was smoking a cigar at the pavilion over there with a friend when I heard loud voices, followed by a cry and a groan.  I hurried down the steps, and saw this poor fellow lying on the ground, with a knife sticking between his shoulder-blades, and his murderer,’ he added, pointing to the man who stood quietly by with Constable McNaught’s firm grip upon his shoulder, ’still stooping over the body of his victim.  I was too late, I fear, to save the latter, but just in time to grapple with the assassin—­”

“‘It’s a lie!’ here interrupted the man hoarsely.  ’I didn’t do it, constable; I swear I didn’t do it.  I saw him fall—­I was coming along a couple of hundred yards away, and I tried to see if the poor fellow was dead.  I swear I didn’t do it.’

“‘You’ll have to explain that to the inspector presently, my man,’ was Constable McNaught’s quiet comment, and, still vigorously protesting his innocence, the accused allowed himself to be led away, and the body was conveyed to the station, pending fuller identification.

“The next morning the papers were full of the tragedy; a column and a half of the York Herald was devoted to an account of Lord Arthur Skelmerton’s plucky capture of the assassin.  The latter had continued to declare his innocence, but had remarked, it appears, with grim humour, that he quite saw he was in a tight place, out of which, however, he would find it easy to extricate himself.  He had stated to the police that the deceased’s name was Charles Lavender, a well-known bookmaker, which fact was soon verified, for many of the murdered man’s ‘pals’ were still in the city.

“So far the most pushing of newspaper reporters had been unable to glean further information from the police; no one doubted, however, but that the man in charge, who gave his name as George Higgins, had killed the bookmaker for purposes of robbery.  The inquest had been fixed for the Tuesday after the murder.