The thing at their heels

SIR AUGUSTINE TEMPLER, in his dignity, reticence and distinction of mind, a type of the old, Victorian ruler class—confesses to two ruling passions: his religion and his race. It would seem that he need fear nothing for his famous family, since intelligent and capable men remain to fill the old baronet's place when he shall pass yet, within the ambit of one year, he sees his son and his grandson destroyed by unknown enemies: while of the two nephews who remain, one is murdered swiftly, the second only escapes death by a miracle. It is then the turn of Sir Augustine himself. The unknown, unsleeping enemy ends his life also: and with the destruction of his remaining nephew, the house of Templer is wiped off the earth. Why do these innocent men perish?