"All! All! All! I was there--in the chamber! My master's words to
him--I heard them all. He has told, then! He has threatened! Oh! if
only I had known when he was here!"

The man's fierce face and gesture told their own tale. I beckoned
him to follow me into the room where Paul and I had been sitting, and
closed the door.

"You were Martin de Vaux's faithful servant," I said. "Do you want to
see his son driven from his home and robbed of his lands?"

The man moved his lips, making a curious sound, and drew a long,
gurgling breath. He was shaking with excitement.

"Who should do it?"

"The priest!" I answered softly.

"Because of the words, the story of which my master spoke to him at
his death in the monastery?"

"Yes! because of that."

"Ah!" He stole up to my side with a noiseless, animal movement, and
whispered in my ear. His eyes were burning; his face was full of evil
meaning. Yet I did not shrink from him. I welcomed him with a smile.
He whispered into my ear. It was like the hiss of a snake; but I
smiled. I whispered back again. He nodded. Ah! the way before me was
growing clear at last. Was it not fate that had brought Gomez ready to
my hand? Ay! fate! A good fate! A kind fate! We stood close together
in that dimly lit room; and though we were alone in the house, we
spoke in whispers to one another. When I moved to the door, Gomez
followed me.

I came down in ten minutes, clad in a long, dark cloak, with a small
hat and a thick veil. I took a stick from the rack, and there was
something else in my deep pocket.

"Alone!" he whispered, as I moved towards the door.

"Alone!" I answered. "Make a good fire in the drawing-room, and let
there be food and wine there."

"For two?" he asked with an evil smile.

"For two!"

CHAPTER XXX

"ADREA'S DIARY"

"A land that is lonelier than a ruin."

A cold twilight followed close upon the day. The sky was strewn with
dark clouds, and a wild wind blew in my face. I was on an unknown
road, and in all my life I had seen nothing so dreary.

On one side, about a hundred yards away, was the sea; on the other
was a broken stretch of bare moorland covered with only the scantiest
herbage and piles of barren grey rocks. Some were lying together in
quaint, grotesque shapes; others stood out alone against the sky,
and broken fragments of all sizes covered the ground, choking and
destroying all vegetation. There was no background of woods or trees;
there