ing over this extraordinary
new outlook. I must certainly wire for Dennis in the morning.

"Mr. Garnesk," I said presently, "you are bringing a very terrible
charge against some human monster whom we have yet to discover. But I
must admit that you seem to have logic on your side. It remains for
me to discover who these people are--if there are more than one."

"Yes," he mused; "that is what we must discover."

"We!" I exclaimed. "Then you're not going away?"

"Yes," he said. "I think it would be fairer to you all if I left you.
I think my arrival has done some good--my departure may do more. But I
assure you, Mr. Ewart, I shall not give up this case till Miss McLeod
recovers her sight. I give you my hand on that."

I shook hands with him warmly.

"Thank you," I said, as I noticed the eager look on his keen, handsome
face. "Thank you from the bottom of my heart. To-morrow I hope I shall
find the man who knew Sholto was blind."

"I only know of one outside the General's household," he answered.

"But I don't even know that!" I cried, forgetting Dennis for the
moment. As for Olvery, he had gone clean out of my mind. "Who do you
mean?"

"The American," said my companion.

"Hilderman!" I exclaimed. "Surely you must be mistaken. Why, he was
absolutely astonished when we told him. He can't have known."

"Still," Garnesk insisted, "I felt sure he knew. I suspected something
about him, but I was wrong to do that, quite wrong; I admit that now.
I couldn't at first see why he pretended he hadn't heard that Sholto
was blind. You may have noticed that I tried to give him the
impression that I had examined Miss McLeod and come to the conclusion
that I could do nothing. I confess I did that to see how he took it.
But I was on a wrong scent altogether. He knew about the dog, that was
obvious, but it was also obvious that he hadn't been told from an
official source, so to speak. He kept fishing for information. He
brought up the dog several times, each time with a query mark in his
voice--as you might say. He remarked that the _last_ time he saw Miss
McLeod she had her beautiful dog with her. That made me suspicious,
because from what you told me she always had her dog with her. Then he
said her dog must be feeling it very keenly, you remember. I tried him
with my pessimistic conclusions to see how he took it. You see, as
soon as I saw the dog I put contagious disease out of the question.
Natural forces unguided seemed impo