m swear again, and
presently return to his place by the table."

The big Oriental lifted his face and looked out at the sweep of country
before the window.

"The thing went on, Excellency, the voice offering its lure, and
presenting it in brief flashes of materialization, and the Master
endeavoring to seize and detain the visitations, which ceased instantly
at his approach to the hearth."

The man paused.

"I knew the Master contended in vain against the thing; if he would
acquire possession of what it offered, he must destroy what the creative
forces of the spirit had released to him."

Again he paused.

"Toward morning he went out of the house. I could hear him walking on
the gravel before the door. He would walk the full length of the house
and return. The night was clear; there was a chill in it, and every
sound was audible.

"That was all, Excellency. The Master returned a little later and
ascended to his bedroom as usual."

Then he added:

"It was when I went in to put wood on the fire that I saw the footprint
on the hearth."

There was a force, compelling and vivid, in these meager details, the
severe suppression of things, big and tragic. No elaboration could have
equaled, in effect, the virtue of this restraint.

The man was going on, directly, with the story.

"The following night, Excellency, the thing happened. The Master had
passed the day in the open. He dined with a good appetite, like a man in
health. And there was a change in his demeanor. He had the aspect of men
who are determined to have a thing out at any hazard.

"After his dinner the Master went into the drawing-room and closed the
door behind him. He had not entered the room on this day. It had stood
locked and close-shuttered!"

The big Oriental paused and made a gesture outward with his fingers, as
of one dismissing an absurdity.

"No living human being could have been concealed in that room. There
is only the bare floor, the Master's table and the fireplace. The great
wood shutters were bolted in, as they had stood since the Master took
the room for a workshop and removed the furniture. The door was always
locked with that special thief-proof lock that the American smiths had
made for it. No one could have entered."

It was the report of the experts at the trial. They showed by the casing
of rust on the bolts that the shutters had not been moved; the walls,
ceiling and floor were undisturbed; the throat of the chimney was