path. The wind made the pipe smoke quickly, and presently
a shower of sparks showed that it was being emptied, and in a minute or
two another match flashed and a second pipe glowed faintly.

Backwards and forwards paced the lawyer, and backwards and forwards
again, but for the space of nearly an hour from his first coming out,
that was everything that happened; and then at last came a tapping of
the bowl and more sparks flying abroad in the wind. The procession was
resumed, Simon in front, the ape-like form behind; but with a greater
space between them this time as the night was clearer, and now they were
heading for the house. The lawyer's steps crunched lightly on the gravel
again, the front door opened and closed, and Carrington was alone in the
garden.

Still crawling, he reached the shelter of the belt of trees and then
rose and made swiftly for the gate, and out into the road. As he passed
under a lamp, his face wore a totally new expression, compounded of
wonder, excitement, and urgent thought. He was walking swiftly, and his
pace never slackened, nor did the keenness leave his face, till he was
back at the door of the Kings Arms Hotel. Before he entered, he took off
his hat and turned up the brim again, and his manner when he tapped at
the door of the manageress' room was perfectly sedate. He let it appear,
however, that he had some slight matter on his mind.

"What is the name of Mr. Rattar's head clerk?" he enquired. "An oldish,
prim looking man, with side whiskers."

"Oh, that will be Mr. Ison," said the manageress.

"I have just remembered a bit of business I ought to have seen about
to-night," he continued. "I can't very well call on Mr. Rattar himself
at this hour, but I was thinking of looking up Mr. Ison if I could
discover his whereabouts."

"The boots will show you the way to his house," said she, and rang the
bell.

While waiting for the boots, Mr. Carrington asked another casual
question or two and learned that Mr. Ison had been in the office since
he was a boy. No man knew the house of Rattar throughout its two
generations better than Mr. Ison, said Miss Peterkin; and she remembered
afterwards that this information seemed to give Mr. Carrington peculiar
satisfaction. He seemed so gratified, indeed, that she wondered a little
at the time.

And then the visitor and the boots set out together for the clerk's
house, and at what hour her guest returned she was not quite sure. The
boots, it see