rough again. There was the man,
pacing slowly away from me, from the wall towards the highroad! I
studied his back closely, and of two things I felt certain: he was not
a sailor of any sort--officer or bluejacket--and yet he walked like a
drilled man. A tall, square-shouldered fellow, in dark plain clothes,
who walks with a short step and a stiff back--what does that suggest?
A policeman of some sort--constable or detective, no doubt about that!

At the road he turned, evidently to stroll back again, and down went my
head, I did not venture to look out again, nor was there any need. I
dressed quickly, and this time put on my uniform. This precaution
seemed urgently--and ominously--called for! And then I slipped
downstairs, went to the front hall, and up the other stairs, and
quietly called "Tiel!" For I confess I was not disposed to sit for two
or three hours waiting for information.

At my second cry he appeared at his bedroom door, prompt as usual.

"What's the matter?" he asked.

"Who did you speak to last night?" I asked point-blank.

He looked at me for an instant and then smiled.

"Good heavens, it wasn't you, was it?" he inquired.

"Me!" I exclaimed.

"I wondered how you knew otherwise."

I told him briefly.

"And now tell me exactly what happened!" I demanded.

"Certainly," said he quietly. "I went out, as I often do last thing at
night, to see that the coast is clear, and this time I found it wasn't.
A man jumped up from behind the wall just as you saw."

"Who was he?"

"I can only suspect. I saw him for an instant by the light of my
torch, and then it seemed less suspicious to put it out."

"I don't see that," I said.

"I am a cautious man," smiled Tiel, as easily as though the incident
had not been of life and death importance.

"And what did he say to you?" I demanded impatiently.

"I spoke to him and asked him what he was doing there."

"What did he say to that?"

"I gave him no chance to answer--because, if the answer was what I
feared, he wouldn't make it. I simply told him he would catch cold if
he sat there on the grass, and gave him some details about my own
misfortune in getting rheumatism through sleeping in damp sheets."

"I see," I said; "you simply tried to bluff him by behaving like an
ordinary simple-minded honest clergyman?"

Tiel nodded.

"It was the only thing to do--unless I had shot him there and then.
And there might have been more men for all I knew."