"Will one of you be so good as to go up and count the bells, and see
if they are all right?" said the Vicar. "There should be--"
"Agoy! what's that?" exclaimed one of the men, recoiling from the foot
of the ladder.
"By Jen!" ejaculated the other, in equal surprise.
"Good gracious!" gasped the Vicar, who, seeing indistinctly a dark
mass lying on the floor, had stooped to examine it, and placed his
hand upon a cold, dead face.
The men drew the body into the streak of light that traversed the
floor.
It was the corpse of Toby Crooke! There was a frightful scar across
his forehead.
The alarm was given. Doctor Lincote, and Mr. Jarlcot, and Turnbull, of
the George and Dragon, were on the spot immediately; and many curious
and horrified spectators of minor importance.
The first thing ascertained was that the man must have been many hours
dead. The next was that his skull was fractured, across the forehead,
by an awful blow. The next was that his neck was broken.
His hat was found on the floor, where he had probably laid it, with
his handkerchief in it.
The mystery now began to clear a little; for a bell--one of the chime
hung in the tower--was found where it had rolled to, against the wall,
with blood and hair on the rim of it, which corresponded with the
grizzly fracture across the front of his head.
The sack that lay in the vestibule was examined, and found to contain
all the church plate; a silver salver that had disappeared, about a
month before, from Dr.
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