he could touch no
food. Neither, tired as he was, could he sit still before the fire....

Two hours later he stumbled across his threshold like a drunken man.
Another draught of water revived him somewhat, and, after resting a
little in the Windsor chair, he mounted the tiny staircase and went
shakily to bed.

* * * * *

Eight days later the artist with the lazy eyes rose from his
leather-topped table to greet Miss Valerie French.

Handing her to a chair, he resumed his seat, and, after a word or two
upon the weather, turned straight to the point.

"I saw Major Lyveden for the first time last Sunday week. We met in
the morning, and he gave me tea the same afternoon. The next day he
went up to London--on business of some sort--but I saw him on Tuesday
and again on Friday and Saturday.

"I don't propose to trouble you with technical terms. All the same,
it's not always possible for a medical man to render his language
literally into the King's English. Now and again I shall give you
rather a free translation, so you mustn't hold me too tight to anything
I may say. I tell you this, because I'm going to state facts and not
hand you mere expressions of opinion."

Valerie nodded intelligently, and the speaker cleared his throat.

"Now, Miss French, one thing is manifest. If Major Lyveden remains at
Gramarye, he will lose his reason." The doctor paused, and for the
first time Valerie noticed the sober, methodical tick of a
grandfather's clock. This, so far from spoiling, served to enrich the
silence investing the latter with an air of _couchant_ dignity which
was most compelling. "He is at present the prey of certain malignant
forces--the more immediate of them natural; some, I believe,
unnatural--and nothing short of his removal from where he is now can
set him free. I'm not certain that even removal will be entirely
effective. But it's obviously the first step. If a man is down with
malaria, the first thing to do is to get him out of the swamp."

Valerie was very pale, but her voice did not tremble.

"And supposing he won't leave...?"

"He must be taken away--forcibly. Listen. At the village inn I picked
up a lot of news. All sorts of rumours are current--all touching
Gramarye. Most of them are nonsense, and I won't repeat them. Others
are founded on hard fact. Have you heard of a Colonel Winchester?"

Valerie nodded.

"Major Lyveden spoke of him as his employer."