She bowed, but did not speak; while her impatient eye, resting
feverishly on the door, told of her anxiety to depart.

"She will need watching," commented Mr. Ferris to himself, and he, too,
waited impatiently for the detectives' return. When they came in he gave
Imogene to their charge, but the look he cast Byrd contained a hint
which led that gentleman to take his hat when he went below to put Miss
Dare into her carriage.

XXXVII.

UNDER THE GREAT TREE.

We but teach
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
To plague the inventor. This even-handed justice
Commends the ingredients of our poisoned chalice
To our own lips. --MACBETH.

IMOGENE went to her home. Confused, disordered, the prey of a thousand
hopes and a thousand fears, she sought for solitude and found it within
the four walls of the small room which was now her only refuge.

The two detectives who had followed her to the house--the one in the
carriage, the other on foot--met, as the street-door closed upon her
retreating form, and consulted together as to their future course.

"Mr. Ferris thinks we ought to keep watch over the house, to make sure
she does not leave it again," announced Mr. Byrd.

"Does he? Well, then, I am the man for that job," quoth Hickory. "I was
on this very same beat last night."

"Good reason why you should rest and give me a turn at the business,"
declared the other.

"Do you want it?"

"I am willing to take it," said Byrd.

"Well, then, after nine o'clock you shall."

"Why after nine?"

"Because if she's bent on skylarking, she'll leave the house before
then," laughed the other.

"And you want to be here if she goes out?"

"Well, yes, _rather_!"

They compromised matters by both remaining, Byrd within view of the
house and Hickory on a corner within hail. Neither expected much from
this effort at surveillance, there seeming to be no good reason why she
should venture forth into the streets again that night. But the
watchfulness of the true detective mind is unceasing.

Several hours passed. The peace of evening had come at last to the
troubled town. In the streets, especially, its gentle influence was
felt, and regions which had seethed all day with a restless and
impatient throng were fast settling into their usual quiet and solitary
condition. A new moon hung in the west, and to Mr. Byrd, pacing the walk