on with it," said
the sergeant, also in a low voice, as if impressed by the place. "He
isn't used to it; we are."

"Yes," said the workman. "Not our first case, eh, pardner?"

But even he spoke below his breath.

"No, I'll stay," said Stratton more firmly. "I have been ill, officer,
and it has left me weak."

"Then don't try it, sir. You can leave it to us."

"Go on," said Stratton, after drawing a long, gasping breath; "I am
quite right now."

"Spoken like an Englishman, sir," said the sergeant. "Party's likeness,
gents?" he said, as the light shone full on the oil-painting across the
room; the face of the grey, benevolent-looking man seeming to gaze at
them reproachfully.

"Yes, my old friend's portrait," said Stratton, with a sigh.

"Better let me go first, sir," said the sergeant, pressing before
Stratton, who was about to enter, but he was too late. Stratton took a
step forward, caught his foot against something, and nearly fell
headlong into the room.

"Mind my tools, please," growled the workman, stooping to pick up his
bag, which had lain in the darkness of the opening; and then all stepped
cautiously into the well-furnished room, which was, in almost every
respect, a repetition of Stratton's, only reversed, and a good deal
encumbered with large, open cases full of bulky folios, containing
series of pressed and dried plants. These hid a great deal of the
panelling and carving, save on the right, where, on either side of the
beautiful old fireplace, were two low doors, formerly the entrances to
the passages which connected the room with Stratton's when they were
part of a suite.

Away to the left was another door, matching those by the fireplace--that
leading into the botanist's bed-chamber; and wherever a space was left
on the panelling, there was a portrait, in an old tarnished gilt frame,
of some ancestor, each--dimly seen though it was--as the sergeant made
the light play round the walls--bearing a striking resemblance to that
which faced them.

"Looks as if he was watching us," said the workman huskily; and he
placed a piece of tobacco in his mouth, making Guest start as he closed
the brass box from which he had extracted it with a loud snap.

"Yes," said the sergeant, in a whisper, as if to himself, and he made
the light of his bull's-eye play from easy-chair to couch, and then all
about the floor; "I always wondered how they managed them eyes."

Everything looked in order, with one