g in
van Heerden's ear and Milsom, who did not understand German very well
and had been trying to pick up a word or two, saw the look of exultation
that came to the doctor's face.

He leapt back and threw out his arms, and his strong voice rang with the
words which the German hymnal has made famous:

"Gott sei Dank durch alle Welt, Gott sei Dank durch alle Welt!"

"What are you thanking God about?" asked Milsom.

"It's come, it's come!" cried van Heerden, his eyes ablaze. "The
Government is with me; behind me, my beautiful country. Oh, Gott sei
Dank!"

"The parson," warned Milsom.

A young man stood looking through the open door.

"The parson, yes," said van Heerden, "there's no need for it, but we'll
have this wedding. Yes, we'll have it! Come in, sir."

He was almost boyishly jovial. Milsom had never seen him like that
before.

"Come in, sir."

"I am sorry to hear your fiancee is ill," said the curate.

"Yes, yes, but that will not hinder the ceremony. I'll go myself and
prepare her."

Milsom had walked round the table to the window, and it was he who
checked the doctor as he was leaving the room.

"Doctor," he said, "come here."

Van Heerden detected a strain of anxiety in the other's voice.

"What is it?" he said.

"Do you hear somebody speaking?"

They stood by the window and listened intently.

"Come with me," said the doctor, and he walked noiselessly and ascended
the stairs, followed more slowly by his heavier companion.

CHAPTER XX

THE MARRIAGE

A quarter of a mile from Deans Folly a motor-car was halted on the side
of a hill overlooking the valley in which van Heerden's house was set.

"That's the house," said Beale, consulting the map, "and that wall that
runs along the road is the wall the tramp described."

"You seem to put a lot of faith in the statement of a man suffering from
delirium tremens," said Parson Homo dryly.

"He was not suffering from delirium tremens this morning. You didn't see
him?"

Homo shook his head.

"I was in London fixing the preliminaries of your nuptials," he said
sarcastically. "It may be the house," he admitted; "where is the
entrance?"

"There's a road midway between here and the river and a private road
leading off," said Beale; "the gate, I presume, is hidden somewhere in
those bushes."

He raised a pair of field-glasses and focused them.

"Yes, the gate's there," he said. "Do you see that man?"

Homo took the glasses and look