pair of dark
gloves, and he raised his arm to cover the lower part of his face,
looking over it through the branches, and facing the silent owner of the
garden, till there were hardly three paces between them, the one on the
lawn, the other in the heart of the plantation.

And then when Simon was exactly opposite, he stopped dead. Carrington's
other hand slipped noiselessly into the pocket where he had dropped that
little article, but otherwise he never moved a muscle and he breathed
very gently. The man on the turf seemed to be doing something with his
hands, but what, it was impossible to say. The hands would move into his
pocket and then out again, till quite three or four minutes had passed,
and then came a sudden flash of light. Carrington's right hand moved
halfway out of his pocket and then was stayed, for by the light of the
match he saw a very singular sight.

Simon Rattar was not looking at him. His eyes were focussed just before
his nose where the bowl of a pipe was beginning to glow. Carrington
could hear the lips gently sucking, and then the aroma of tobacco came
in a strong wave through the trees. Finally the match went out, and the
glowing pipe began to move slowly along the turf, keeping close to the
shelter of the trees.

For a space Carrington stood petrified with wonder, and then, very
carefully and quite silently, he worked his way through the trees out on
to the turf, and at once fell on his hands and knees. Had any one been
there to see, they would have beheld for the next five minutes a strange
procession of two slowly moving along the edge of the plantation; a
thickset man in front smoking a pipe and something like a great gorilla
stalking him from behind. This procession skirted the plantation nearly
down to the gate; then it turned at right angles, following the line of
trees that bordered the wall between the garden and the road; and then
again at right angles when it had reached the further corner of Mr.
Rattar's demesne. Simon was now in a secluded path with shrubs on either
hand, and instead of continuing his tour, he turned at the end of this
path and paced slowly back again. And seeing this, the ape behind him
squatted in the shadow of a laurel and waited.

A steady breeze was now blowing and the trees were sighing continuously.
The sky at the same time cleared, and more and more stars came out till
the eyes of the man behind the bush could follow the moving man from end
to end of the