of life about
the house.

A light shone in one window and in another, and vanished, and soon the
door opened and there appeared two people on the threshold, clearly
visible in the light of a strong incandescent gas-burner just within the
hall.

The watcher in the garden moved a little to get a clearer view.

In the paroxysm of terror at this sudden coming to life of what they had
believed to be a part of the bushes, the two little field-mice scampered
away, and Dunn bit his lip with annoyance, for he knew well that some of
those he had had traffic with in the past would have been very sure,
on hearing that scurrying-off of the frightened mice, that some one was
lurking near at hand.

But the two in the lighted doorway opening on the veranda heard and
suspected nothing.

One was a man, one a woman, both were young, both were extraordinarily
good-looking, and as they stood in the blaze of the gas they made a
strikingly handsome and attractive picture on which, however, Dunn
seemed to look from his hiding-place with hostility and watchful
suspicion.

"How dark it is, there's not a star showing," the girl was saying.
"Shall you be able to find your way, even with the lantern? You'll keep
to the road, won't you?"

Her voice was low and pleasant and so clear Dunn heard every word
distinctly. She seemed quite young, not more than twenty or twenty-one,
and she was slim and graceful in build and tall for a woman. Her face,
on which the light shone directly, was oval in shape with a broad, low
forehead on which clustered the small, unruly curls of her dark brown
hair, and she had clear and very bright brown eyes. The mouth and chin
were perhaps a little large to be in absolute harmony with the rest of
her features, and she was of a dark complexion, with a soft and
delicate bloom that would by itself have given her a right to claim her
possession of a full share of good looks. She was dressed quite simply
in a white frock with a touch of colour at the waist and she had a very
flimsy lace shawl thrown over her shoulders, presumably intended as a
protection against the night air.

Her companion was a very tall and big man, well over six feet in height,
with handsome, strongly-marked features that often bore an expression a
little too haughty, but that showed now a very tender and gentle look,
so that it was not difficult to guess the state of his feelings towards
the girl at his side. His shoulders were broad, his chest d