, and this was
confirmed by the sky, which literally blazed with stars. I could see
dimly but pretty distinctly the outbuildings at the back of the house,
and the road that led to the highway, and the dark rim of hills beyond.
Suddenly I heard the back door gently open, and still as I had stood on
my chair before, I became like a statue now. In a moment the figure of
Tiel appeared, and from a flash of light I saw that he carried his
electric torch. He walked slowly towards the highroad till he came to
a low wall that divided the fields at the side, and then from behind
the wall up jumped the form of a man, illuminated for an instant by a
flash from the torch, and then just distinguishable in the gloom.

I held my breath and waited for the crack of a pistol-shot, gently
withdrawing my head a little, and prepared to rush down and take part
in the fray. But there was not a sound save a low murmur of voices,
far too distant and too hushed for me to catch a syllable of what they
were saying. And then after two or three minutes I saw Tiel turn and
start to stroll back again. But at that moment my observations ceased,
for I stepped hastily down from my chair and stood breathlessly waiting
for him to run up to my room.

He was quiet almost as a mouse. I had not heard him pass through the
house as he went out, and I barely heard a sound now as he returned.
But I heard enough to know that he had gone off to bed, and did not
propose to pay me a visit.

"What in Heaven's name did it mean?" I asked myself.

A dozen wild and alarming theories flashed through my mind, and then at
last I saw a ray of comfort. Perhaps this was only a rendezvous with
Ashington, or some subordinate in his pay. It was not a very brilliant
ray, for the more I thought over it, the more unlikely it seemed that a
rendezvous should take place at that spot and in that inconvenient
fashion, when there was nothing to prevent Ashington or his emissary
from entering the house by the front door and holding their
conversation in the parlour. However, it seemed absolutely the only
solution, short of supposing that the house was watched, and so I
accepted it for what it was worth in the meantime, and turned into bed.

My sleep was very broken, and in the early morning I felt so wide
awake, and my thoughts were so restlessly busy, that I jumped up and
resolved to have another peep out of the skylight. Very quietly I
climbed on the chair and put my head th