is, I entertained but little hope of another midnight
visitor. Nevertheless, I put my light out early, and sat a long time
peeping through my blind; but only an inevitable Tom, with back hunched
up and tail erect, broke the moonlit profile of the back-garden wall;
and once more that disreputable music (which none the less had saved my
life) was the only near sound all night.

I felt very reluctant to pack Deane and Adams away in his case next
morning, and the case in my portmanteau, where I could not get at it in
case my unknown friends took it into their heads to accompany me out of
town. In the hope that they would, I kept him loaded, and in the same
overcoat pocket, until late in the afternoon, when, being very near my
northern destination, and having the compartment to myself, I locked the
toy away with considerable remorse for the price I had paid for it. All
down the line I had kept an eye for suspicious characters with an eye
upon me; but even my self-consciousness failed to discover one; and I
reached my haven of peace, and of fresh fell air, feeling, I suppose,
much like any other fool who has spent his money upon a white elephant.

CHAPTER IX. MY CONVALESCENT HOME

The man Braithwaite met me at the station with a spring cart. The very
porters seemed to expect me, and my luggage was in the cart before I
had given up my ticket. Nor had we started when I first noticed that
Braithwaite did not speak when I spoke to him. On the way, however, a
more flagrant instance recalled young Rattray's remark, that the man was
"not like other people." I had imagined it to refer to a mental, not
a physical, defect; whereas it was clear to me now that my prospective
landlord was stone-deaf, and I presently discovered him to be dumb as
well. Thereafter I studied him with some attention during our drive of
four or five miles. I called to mind the theory that an innate physical
deficiency is seldom without its moral counterpart, and I wondered how
far this would apply to the deaf-mute at my side, who was ill-grown,
wizened, and puny into the bargain. The brow-beaten face of him was
certainly forbidding, and he thrashed his horse up the hills in a
dogged, vindictive, thorough-going way which at length made me jump
out and climb one of them on foot. It was the only form of protest that
occurred to me.

The evening was damp and thick. It melted into night as we drove.
I could form no impression of the country, but this seem