ack, then."

But Henry did not answer, and they parted. Each sought his own bedroom,
and while Lennox retired at once and might have been expected to pass a
night more mentally peaceful than the other, in reality it was not so.

The younger slept ill, while May suffered no emotion but annoyance. He
was contemptuous of Henry. It seemed to him that he had taken a rather
mean and unsporting line, nor did he believe for a moment that he was
honest. Lennox had a modern mind; he had been through the furnace of
war; he had received a first-class education. It seemed impossible to
imagine that he spoke the truth, or that his sudden suspicion of real
perils, beyond human power to combat, could be anything but a spiteful
attempt to put May off, after he himself had lost the toss. Yet that
seemed unlike a gentleman. Then the allusion to Mary perturbed the
sailor. He could not quarrel with the words, but he resented the advice,
seeing what it was based upon.

His anger lessened swiftly, however, and before he started his
adventure he had dismissed Henry from his mind. He put on pyjamas and a
dressing-gown, took a candle, a railway-rug, his watch, and the loaded
revolver.

Then he walked quietly down the corridor to the Grey Room. On reaching
it his usual good temper returned, and he found himself entirely happy
and contented. He unlocked the forbidden entrance, set his candle by
the bed, and locked the door again from inside. He rolled up his
dressing-gown for a pillow, and placed his watch and revolver and candle
at his hand on a chair. A few broken reflections drifted through his
mind, as he yawned and prepared to sleep. His brain brought up events
of the day--a missed shot, a good shot, lunch under a haystack with Mary
and Fayre-Michell's niece. She was smart and showy and slangy--cheap
every way compared with Mary. What would his wife think if she knew he
was so near? Come to him for certain. He cordially hoped that he might
not be recalled to his ship; but there was a possibility of it. It would
be rather a lark to show the governor over the Indomitable. She was a
"hush-hush" ship--one of the wonders of the Navy still. Funny that the
Italian roof of the Grey Room looked like a dome, though it was really
flat. A cunning trick of perspective.

It was a still and silent night, moonless, very dark, and very tranquil.
He went to the window to throw it open.

Only a solitary being waked long that night at Chadlands, and only