see what I mean--that red light?"

"And those shadows on the further wall like riders passing with
silver-tipped spears? Isn't it...? There they go--ten, eleven, twelve,
thirteen...."

"How still the Square is? Do you see those three windows all alight?
Isn't there a dance going on? Don't you hear the music?"

"No, it's the wind."

"No, surely.... That's a flute--and then violins. Listen! Those are
fiddles for certain!"

"How still, how still it is!"

We stood and listened whilst the white mist gathered and grew over the
cobbles. Certainly there was a strain of music, very faint and dim,
threading through the air.

"Well, I must go on," said Bohun. "You go up to the left, don't you?
Good-night." I watched Bohun's figure cross the Square. The light was
wonderful, like fold on fold of gauze, but opaque, so that buildings
showed with sharp outline behind it. The moon was full and quite red. I
turned to go home and ran straight into Lawrence.

"Good heavens!" I cried. "Are you a ghost too?"

He didn't seem to feel any surprise at meeting me. He was plainly in a
state of tremendous excitement. He spoke breathlessly.

"You're exactly the man. You must come back with me. My diggings now are
only a yard away from here."

"It's very late," I began, "and--"

"Things are desperate," he said. "I don't know--" he broke off. "Oh!
come and help me, Durward, for God's sake!"

I went with him, and we did not exchange another word until we were in
his rooms.

He began hurriedly taking off his clothes. "There! Sit on the bed.
Different from Wilderling's, isn't it? Poor devil.... I'm going to have
a bath if you don't mind--I've got to clear my head."

He dragged out a tin bath from under his bed, then a big can of water
from a corner. Stripped, he looked so thick and so strong, with his
short neck and his bull-dog build, that I couldn't help saying,

"You don't look a day older than the last time you played Rugger for
Cambridge."

"I am, though." He sluiced the cold water over his head, grunting. "Not
near so fit--gettin' fat too.... Rugger days are over. Wish all my other
days were over too."

He got out of the bath, wiped himself, put on pyjamas, brushed his
teeth, then his hair, took out a pipe, and then sat beside me on the
bed.

"Look here, Durward," he said. "I'm desperate, old man." (He said
"desprite.") "We're all in a hell of a mess."

"I know," I said.

He puffed furiously at his pipe.

"You know,