ght, quite upset us. Telegrams, registered
letters, or express messengers would alone be sufficient; but the great
army of those who want to get something would make disaster certain.
In addition, the occurrences of the last week have drawn police
attention to this house. Even if special instructions to keep an eye
on it have not been issued from Scotland Yard or the District Station,
you may be sure that the individual policeman on his rounds will keep
it well under observation. Besides, the servants who have discharged
themselves will before long begin to talk. They must; for they have,
for the sake of their own characters, to give some reason for the
termination of a service which has I should say a position in the
neighbourhood. The servants of the neighbours will begin to talk, and,
perhaps the neighbours themselves. Then the active and intelligent
Press will, with its usual zeal for the enlightenment of the public and
its eye to increase of circulation, get hold of the matter. When the
reporter is after us we shall not have much chance of privacy. Even if
we were to bar ourselves in, we should not be free from interruption,
possibly from intrusion. Either would ruin our plans, and so we must
take measures to effect a retreat, carrying all our impedimenta with
us. For this I am prepared. For a long time past I have foreseen such
a possibility, and have made preparation for it. Of course, I had no
foreknowledge of what has happened; but I knew something would, or
might, happen. For more than two years past my house in Cornwall has
been made ready to receive all the curios which are preserved here.
When Corbeck went off on his search for the lamps I had the old house
at Kyllion made ready; it is fitted with electric light all over, and
all the appliances for manufacture of the light are complete. I had
perhaps better tell you, for none of you, not even Margaret, knows
anything of it, that the house is absolutely shut out from public
access or even from view. It stands on a little rocky promontory
behind a steep hill, and except from the sea cannot be seen. Of old it
was fenced in by a high stone wall, for the house which it succeeded
was built by an ancestor of mine in the days when a great house far
away from a centre had to be prepared to defend itself. Here, then, is
a place so well adapted to our needs that it might have been prepared
on purpose. I shall explain it to you when we are all there. Th