coated
evenly with old soot. Only the door was possible as an entry, and this
was always locked except when Rodman was himself in the room. And at
such times the big Oriental never left his post in the hall before it.
That seemed a condition of his mysterious overcare of Rodman.

Everybody thought the trial court went to an excessive care. It
scrutinized in minute detail every avenue that could possibly lead to
a solution of the mystery. The whole country and every resident was
inquisitioned. The conclusion was inevitable. There was no human
creature on that forest crest of the Berkshires but Rodman and his
servant.

But one can see why the trial judge kept at the thing; he was seeking an
explanation consistent with the common experience of mankind. And when
he could not find it, he did the only thing he could do. He was wrong,
as we now know. But he had a hold in the dark on the truth--not the
whole truth by any means; he never had a glimmer of that. He never had
the faintest conception of the big, amazing truth. But as I have said,
he had his fingers on one essential fact.

The man was going on with a slow, precise articulation as though he
would thereby make a difficult matter clear.

"The night had fallen swiftly. It was incredibly silent. There was no
sound in the Master's room, and no light except the flicker of the logs
smoldering in the fireplace. The thin line of it appeared faintly along
the sill of the door."

He paused.

"The fireplace, Excellency, is at the end of the great room, directly
opposite this door into the hall, before which I always sat when the
Master was within. The fireplace is of black marble with an immense
black-marble hearth. And the gift which I had brought the Master stands
on one side of the fire, on this marble hearth, as though it were a
single andiron."

The man turned back into the heart of his story.

"I knew by the vague sense of pressure that the devocations of the
thing were again on the way. And I began to suffer in the spirit for the
Master's safety. Interference, both by act and by the will, were denied
me. But there is an anxiety of spirit, Excellency, that the uncertainty
of an issue makes intolerable."

The man paused.

"The pressure continued--and the silence. It was nearly midnight. I
could not distinguish any act or motion of the Master, and in fear
I crept over to the door and looked in through the crevice along the
threshold.

"The Master sat by his t