Of course, it may have failed.

Mr.Graves may even now be alive.

I shall make it my very especial business to ascertain whether he is or not.

And if he is not, I shall take it to myself as a sacred duty to lay my hand on the man who has compassed his death." I looked at Thorndyke with something akin to awe.

In the quiet unemotional tone of his voice, in his unruffled manner and the stony calm of his face, there was something much more impressive, more fateful, than there could have been in the fiercest threats or the most passionate denunciations.