e as fast as the mail from
London could bring him.

I had expected, from his master's description, to see a serious, sedate
man, rather sly in his looks, and rather reserved in his manner. To my
amazement, this practiced hand at delicate investigations was a brisk,
plump, jolly little man, with a comfortable double chin, a pair of very
bright black eyes, and a big bottle-nose of the true groggy red color.
He wore a suit of black, and a limp, dingy white cravat; took snuff
perpetually out of a very large box; walked with his hands crossed
behind his back; and looked, upon the whole, much more like a parson of
free-and-easy habits than a lawyer's clerk.

"How d'ye do?" says he, when I opened the door to him. "I'm the man you
expect from the office in London. Just say Mr. Dark, will you? I'll sit
down here till you come back; and, young man, if there is such a thing
as a glass of ale in the house, I don't mind committing myself so far as
to say that I'll drink it."

I got him the ale before I announced him. He winked at me as he put it
to his lips.

"Your good health," says he. "I like you. Don't forget that the name's
Dark; and just leave the jug and glass, will you, in case my master
keeps me waiting."

I announced him at once, and was told to show him into the library.

When I got back to the hall the jug was empty, and Mr. Dark was
comforting himself with a pinch of snuff, snorting over it like a
perfect grampus. He had swallowed more than a pint of the strongest old
ale in the house; and, for all the effect it seemed to have had on him,
he might just as well have been drinking so much water.

As I led him along the passage to the library Josephine passed us. Mr.
Dark winked at me again, and made her a low bow.

"Lady's maid," I heard him whisper to himself. "A fine woman to look at,
but a damned bad one to deal with." I turned round on him, rather
angry at his cool ways, and looked hard at him just before I opened the
library door. Mr. Dark looked hard at me. "All right," says he. "I can
show myself in." And he knocks at the door, and opens it, and goes in
with another wicked wink, all in a moment.

Half an hour later the bell rang for me. Mr. Dark was sitting between my
mistress (who was looking at him in amazement) and the lawyer (who was
looking at him with approval). He had a map open on his knee, and a pen
in his hand. Judging by his face, the communication of the secret about
my master did not seem to