old man
was quite awed.

"'Pon me soul, he must be thundering clever, thundering clever," he
muttered. "But it's not healthy, you know, Ronald; in fact, it's begad
unhealthy. I've always been a bit scared of these people who see
things that are not there. Still, I suppose it's the modern way;
reading all these detective yarns and so on does it, no doubt."

He was still marvelling at this new mystery when we got back to the
house to find Myra sitting on the verandah with the specialist, who
was keeping her in fits of laughter with anecdotes of some of his
wealthy women patients.

He sprang up as he saw us approaching, and ran down to meet us.

"I'm certain of one thing," he said excitedly, as he walked between
us, and answered the General's question. "We have got to solve the
mystery, and she will see again. This is something new, but it has a
very simple solution, which we must find out by hook or by crook.
When I know how Miss McLeod lost her sight I shall very likely be able
to find out how to restore it, and I shall also know something that
perhaps no other oculist has ever dreamed of. There isn't the
slightest sign of any organic disease, which probably means that
Nature will assert herself, and she will eventually regain her sight
naturally. But we mustn't wait for that. We've got to be up and doing.
I tell you, sir, I wouldn't have missed this for anything. Have you
been exploring?"

"We've been having a look at those marks which meant so much to you
and conveyed nothing whatever to me, although I was once considered
something of a scout," the General admitted.

"Did you find anything fresh?"

"No, only some trippers, as the General calls them, had been cutting
heather," I replied.

"That's not likely to help us much," the oculist agreed, "unless they
were not trippers at all, and were cutting the heather as a blind.
What were they like?"

"Oh, we didn't see them. We only saw the results of their iconoclasm.
The heather was recently, but not freshly, cut," I replied, and the
old man glanced at me with some slight suspicion, as if he feared I,
too, was about to take up the deduction business.

"Recent, but not fresh?" muttered Garnesk.

"Now, why should a man who wanted----Good heavens! I've got it."

"What _are_ you dear people getting so excited about?" Myra asked, for
by this time we had almost reached the verandah.

"We'll tell you in a minute, dear," I called, and waited for Garnesk
to expla