ad a more interesting evening. I was fired on before
I had passed the gate, and chased as though I carried the treasures of
the Raj. I have your word never to tell where you got it. Never mind my
reasons, or the thanks either. Take it Ives. It has saved me so many a
dull day that it has quite repaid my trouble."

There he was, half a pace away, and yet he did not know me. I think it
was that, more than anything else, which robbed me of my elation. To him
the whole thing seemed an ordinary piece of business. I saw him test his
girth, preparatory to mounting again, saw him slowly readjust his cloak,
and then I took the paper he handed me and buttoned it carefully in my
inside pocket. He turned to his horse again and laid a hand on his
withers, but still he did not mount. I think he was staring into the
night before him and listening, as I had been. Then he turned again
slowly, and half faced me. On the wind, far off still, but nevertheless
distinct, was the sound of voices.

"It is time we were going," said my father. "I only gave them the slip
five minutes back. It was closer work than I had expected."

And then he started, and looked at me more intently through the darkness.

"Name of the devil!" said my father. "How did you get here?"

But that was all. He never even started. His hand still rested tranquilly
on the reins and he still half faced me. Had it been so on that other
night long ago, when his world crumbled to ruins about him? Did he always
win and lose with the same passive acquiescence? Did nothing ever
astonish him? There was a moment's silence, and I felt his eyes on me,
and suddenly became very cautious. I knew well enough he would not let it
finish in such a manner, but what could he do? The game was in my hands.

"Quite simply," I told him. "My horse was in the stable."

When he spoke again his voice was still pleasantly conversational.

"And Brutus?" he asked. "Where the devil was Brutus? Surely the age of
miracles is past. Or do I see before me--" he bowed with all his old
courtesy--"another David?"

"Brutus," I replied, "jumped through a second story window."

"Indeed?" he said. "He always was most agile."

"He was," I replied. "Not five minutes after you left, Uncle Jason
arrived."

My father removed his hand from the reins and looped them through his
arm.

"Indeed?" he said. "He came in heels first, I trust?"

"No," I said, "he is alive and well."

"The devil!" said my father, and